A Las Vegas-based casino operator has eyes on central Indiana and is willing to put a huge chunk of money up to make its vision a reality. According to a Tuesday report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Full House Resorts has proposed a $650 million gambling resort development in Indianapolis, one of the major commercial hubs of the Midwest.
It is not extraordinarily common for there to be enough room in a big city to build a sprawling, “Las Vegas-style” resort, but Indianapolis provides a unique opportunity. The Indianapolis Airport Authority has leveled one of the airport terminals and some parking lots that were no longer needed, leaving a large area of land unused. Through the “Land Use Initiative,” the Airport Authority is putting this land up for sale.
Enter Full House Resorts. The company has proposed “American Place,” a development that would include a casino, office space, small hotel, shops, and more. It would occupy an area on the northeast side of the airport. According to a press release from Full House, the plan includes:
• Approximately 700,000 square feet of high-end creative retail space
• 25-villa boutique hotel designed to offer the most luxurious accommodations in the Midwest
• Seasonal plaza with ice skating and a European Christmas market in the winter and landscaped gardens and forests in the summer
• Central square surrounded by a unique fountain and 3-D imaging experience
• Multi-purpose conference and performance center
• Residential condominiums
• Offices
• Restaurant court
• Multiplex movie theater
• Small, high-end casino
• Large health club offering local memberships
“We can build something here, at the Crossroads of America, that doesn’t exist anywhere else. We can build a place that will add to the appeal of Indianapolis, make the city proud, and attract both Indiana residents and visitors,” said Full House Resorts CEO Daniel R. Lee in the press release. “Given the adjacency of the airport, we expect the center to attract people from throughout the country to an experience that is part Indianapolis, part Las Vegas, and 100 percent unique.”
As the proposal states, the casino would be fairly small, taking up less than five percent of the entire facility’s square footage. It would house 700 slot machines and table games, all taken from Full House’s other Indiana casino, the Rising Star Casino Resort in southern Indiana, at the Kentucky/Indiana border and near Cincinnati, Ohio. Rising Star has been struggling mightily – according to the Review-Journal, competition in neighboring Ohio has hurt the casino, resulting in a 75 percent dip in revenues.
The hotel is also small, but that was done purposely. Lee said that because the location is next to the airport, there are already several hotels nearby. The small hotel on grounds would be geared towards high rollers, while shuttles would be made available for guests of the airport hotels.
Indiana already has thirteen casinos, but American Place would be the first “Las Vegas-style” casino in the state. The other casinos are all riverboats or racinos, with the exception of French Lick Resort Casino, which was originally built on a man-made lake and then retroactively converted to a land-based casino. Most of the casinos are in the southern portion of the state while three on Lake Michigan in the northwest corner of Indiana and one, Hoosier Park, is in central Indiana, about a half-hour northeast of Indianapolis.
