Boyd Details $160 Million Renovation For Illinois Casino

Boyd Gaming provided the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) a presentation detailing its proposed $160 million renovation to Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria on Thursday, potentially opening a rift between East Peoria and Peoria.

At dispute is whether Boyd must adhere to a 1991 agreement the two cities made that any “land-based” casino must be built on Peoria’s side of the Illinois River. The agreement originally split gaming tax revenue three ways, with 45% each to Peoria and East Peoria and 10% allocated for a joint development fund. That agreement was since amended to a 50-50 split between the two cities.

East Peoria, however, keeps all the other tax revenue generated by the casino property outside gaming, which includes receipts from sales, hotels, and food and beverage. The 2019 gaming expansion bill that created six new casino licenses and legalized sports betting also authorized land-based casinos, which brought the 1991 agreement back into focus.

Boyd’s presentation to the IGB defined Par-A-Dice as a “riverboat casino,” which could render the three-decades old agreement moot. But the effort detailed in those plans to retain that status likely will escalate the dispute between the cities into one that includes litigation unless the two parties can find a form of revenue sharing beyond gaming receipts.

Location, location, location

Par-A-Dice Casino, as it currently exists, fits the definition of a “riverboat casino,” as it is physically a riverboat situated on the Illinois River. Adjacent to the venue is a parking lot and a 200-room hotel.

Boyd’s renovations plans, which it labeled a “riverboat modernization,” call to move the casino gaming area onto the land where the parking lot currently is and adjacent to the hotel. The 29,000 square feet of gaming space would host 655 slots and 24 table games, which are respective increases of 20% and 33% for each vertical. There would also be a new 120-seat steakhouse, 155-seat gastropub, and a quick service restaurant.

In its desire to retain riverboat casino status for Par-A-Dice, Boyd Gaming Corporate Strategist Uri Clinton detailed the casino floor — which would be moved approximately 150 feet — would sit atop 1,000 gallons of water from the Illinois River. He explained that it would be “essentially a water basin consistent with our understanding of past precedents from the board and the modernization of the riverboat gaming in the industry.”

Clinton cited two IGB precedents Boyd was following, one being Des Plaines-based Rivers Casino in 2011, which also operates with a basin, and the other Harrah’s Metropolis in 2014, which has a riverboat sitting on “overlapping water bladders.” The design was also specifically made to ensure the gaming floor also sat upon historic Illinois River inlets and the Illinois River is the sole source of water for the basin.

Clinton also provided three aerial photos spanning back to 1967 that showed the projected gaming floor is above the inlet, which had been filled in 2023 due to the previous projects. He said that soil samples taken from the inlet area where the gaming floor would sit “revealed that the clay, the organic shells, the wood, the roots, are consistent with the same materials on the river bottom.”

The economic side of renovations

Clinton and fellow presenters estimated the renovation would provide $890 million in economic impact over a 10-year span, with $619 million of it direct. There would be slightly more than 500 construction jobs for the project with $156 million in total economic impact.

Boyd expected it would need 15 months to set up the area for construction and 16 months for the actual renovation and build in targeting a late 2028 opening for the venue. Clinton expected annual economic impact to reach approximately $100 million by 2037.

Peoria Mayor Rita Ali, who previously wrote a letter to the IGB demanding Boyd build a land-based casino or sell its gaming license, was not in attendance at Thursday’s meeting, but the town’s legal representatives were. Cesar “Cid” Froelich, who is partner and chair of Taft Stettinus & Hollister’s Chicago office, noted to the board it was the first time they had seen Boyd’s presentation.

Froelich added the city of Peoria has had ongoing discussions with both Boyd and the IGB and remain “in active dialogue with Boyd” in looking to find solutions that address “our concerns.” The parties are all expected to be present at the next IGB meeting, scheduled for Feb. 5, in which the agency may render a decision on allowing the renovation to move forward.