
Petersburg officials and casino developers gather to break ground on the $1.4 billion project. (Photo by Jackie DiBartolomeo)
Under a sunny Wednesday morning sky, Petersburg city officials and a group of developers officially broke ground on the city’s $1.4 billion casino resort.
Construction is now underway for the multiphase project, which will span 92 acres near the intersection of Wagner Road and Interstate 95. The project is co-developed by Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach’s Bruce Smith Enterprise.
Petersburg city officials were joined by the developers, state representatives and local partners to dig shovels into a pile of dirt covered with red pairs of dice and poker chips, signifying the beginning of construction for the casino.
Ed Evans of Cordish Gaming Group, the gaming division of Cordish Cos., hosted a program that included speeches from Petersburg Mayor Samuel Parham, gaming group President Rob Norton, Bruce Smith of Bruce Smith Enterprise and others.
The project is set to include more than 450,000 square feet of gaming, hotel and dining space and over 75,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.
Also planned are a 200-room hotel complete with 20 suites, a resort pool and fitness center, 1,600 slot machines, table areas including a 22-table poker room, and a 4,000-seat entertainment venue.
The casino resort is slated to bring $2.8 billion in economic stimulus for the region and over 6,100 construction jobs and 1,400 permanent jobs in its first decade being open, according to the Cordish Cos.
The company said hiring preference for new jobs will be given to local residents first.
Petersburg and casino officials touted the benefits the casino would bring to Petersburg and the region at Wednesday’s event.
“Today is a defining moment. Live! Casino and Hotel in Virginia will be that transformative moment for the City of Petersburg,” said Cordish Cos. COO Zed Smith.
“This $1.4 billion transformational project marks the beginning of a new chapter for Petersburg, defined by progress, opportunity and growth,” Parham added. “Its impact goes far beyond bricks and mortar.”
The project also promises $240 million in tax revenue in its first decade to the City of Petersburg alone, which Norton announced to cheers from the crowd.
Cordish and Bruce Smith Enterprise, the latter run by NFL Hall of Famer and Virginia Tech legend Bruce Smith, plan to concurrently construct a temporary, 75,000-square-foot casino facility on the site to open by the end of 2025, Norton said.
“That’s allowing us to move those economic benefits forward, start jobs earlier, start the flow of income to the community faster,” Norton said.
The temporary casino would create about 500 jobs and would have around 900 slot machines, 33 table games, a bar and a quick-service restaurant, he added.
The official casino resort is slated to open in 2027, at which point the temporary casino would be demolished.
Norton also announced at the groundbreaking that the Virginia Live! Casino Resort has reached an agreement with nearby Richard Bland College to host an educational program to train students in casino dealing at the school. The program should begin this summer.
“This dealer’s institute is going to put students through who are going to get high-paying jobs in our community,” said Richard Bland College President Debbie Sydow.
Last November, about 80% of Petersburg residents voted yes in a referendum to allow the casino in the city. The vote was the highest support for a casino referendum in Virginia history.
Petersburg was not the first option for a new casino in central Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly previously gave five “economically distressed” localities permission to work on casino projects in 2020, including South Richmond, whose residents ultimately turned down the project twice.
The General Assembly passed legislation last April making Petersburg eligible to host a casino. Petersburg City Council then selected Cordish as the developer.
At the groundbreaking, Bruce Smith expressed his excitement for the future of Petersburg and the Virginia Live! Casino Resort.
“No longer will people drive past Petersburg,” Smith said. “Instead, they will make plans to drive to Petersburg.”
Yeah, it isn’t like investing in triple A bonds or Treasury bills, definitely. But a Casino like this in this location will not only have a local monopoly, but also it is a better location than Portsmouth or Bristol or Danville — people can go there on a sudden impulse as they are driving by, which, though a bit sinister to tap into people’s dopamine reward as they are just driving by, will be good for Petersburg’s finances, and is unfortunately the way of the world.
I voted against the casino referendum both times in Richmond because the numbers just don’t add up. Most of the jobs created will be dead end jobs in the service industry. Even with the better jobs as card dealers or managers, for instance, the pay is not stellar and the work is very demanding. Petersburg has had success attracting pharma manufacturers. The voters in Petersburg strongly supported the idea of a casino, however, and I hope it succeeds.
I disagree with the “dead end jobs” comment. To a CERTAIN degree, being a college professor or a corporate executive is a “dead end job” in that you often have to MOVE to a new institution to level-up — take the same job at a more prestigious outfit, then maybe level up back at your old one “Clarence has returned to Sliipery Rock U to head the _________ Dept after spending time developing the _________ at Penn” Likewise, the current CEO of Walmart used to work the floor of a Walmart. There are entire hotel management schools out their (Cornell… Read more »
The Die Is Cast. I think it might’ve been more apt for Smith to say “People won’t just drive past, but will STOP in Petersburg.” The location is great. Sure, when/if they build the entertainment component, there will be a lot of people who drive to Petersburg. I am not a connoisseur of casinos (never went to one unless the accompanying hotel was the best deal in a town and, I have to say, the pools and stuff are often better) so I don’t know which ones people would drive to for that experience. I just hope that a recession… Read more »
What happens in Pete’Vegas, stays in Pete’Vegas. Luckily there are plenty of wig shops if have to go incognito.
With great fanfare, the city welcomes a businesses that is designed to drain resources from surrounding communities and play into natural addictive tendencies of human beings. Gambling is America’s new favorite pastime, after all. Which makes sense considering all of the poorly thought out choices, destructive short-term thinking, and knee-jerk reactions that are the traditions of this country.
As a resident of Central Virginia, I wish Petersburg the best of luck. As a resident of the City of Richmond, I’m glad we dodged this bullet.
I am very proud that my son, Quinton Robbins, played a leading role in helping Richmond dodged that bullet. There will be no honest government in any place that has a strong gaming industry and gaming lobby.
Agreed.
I hate to think of the money all these idiots are going to waste here, when instead they could be putting it into a low-cost index fund within a Roth IRA for their long term benefit.
I have a modest proposal. Petersburg is missing out on some real revenue opportunities here. The casinos are a good start but I propose placing the casinos in the zone where laws against drug use do not apply. Also, given high rates of unemployment in Petersburg, the public schools there should begin sex worker training to open up job opportunities at the new casino. Why stop at gambling? Let’s get our revenue thinking out of the 19th century!
When they say it is a $1.4b project, what does that mean specifically? Does that translate into taxable real estate?
Because every piece of Petersburg’s real estate combined assesses at ~$2.5b.
Even if the projections are significantly off, this is going to have a huge impact on Petersburg’s revenue.
Yes. The immediate impact will be some one time things, but the recurring will be a big chunk of change — unfortunately the projected 1.4 B$ will come in stages — as the article says, the permanent casino won’t open until 2027 — I am confident that they have every intention to build that and the Hotel, since others have followed the same model — open the doors as fast as possible while building the permanent site — and not only have they followed through, this is a better location than all of those other places. Now, I don’t know… Read more »