A company that wants to bring a slot-machine parlor to Chesapeake’s Greenbrier Mall put up $15 million and promised traffic improvements to overcome opposition by some city officials.
By a 4-3 vote Wednesday night, the Planning Commission recommended the City Council approve the satellite wagering facility Rosie’s Gaming Emporium. Commissioners Shelley Deneau, Harold Gilbert and Michael Sweeney voted no, while Chairman Hollis Ellis and Commissioner Marty Williams abstained.
The vote was a reversal from the commission’s June meeting when it recommended with a 6-2 vote to deny the project.
The facility is part of a much bigger, $80 million project dubbed The Zone at Greenbrier Mall which includes a hotel, bowling alley and restaurant. It is expected to add 500 new jobs.
But the project had a difficult time getting off the ground at the planning commission — concerns over traffic were too much for some commissioners given “horrendous” conditions already plaguing roads around the mall.
So Colonial Downs Group, which operates four Rosie’s around Virginia, including in Hampton and Richmond, put up cash for the city to “use at their disposal,” said the group’s chief operating officer, Aaron Gomes.
If the project were approved by City Council, $500,000 would initially be used for a traffic study. Then, over each of the next four years, Colonial Downs would contribute about $3.6 million for the city to use for road improvements.
“I’ve been doing this 41 years,” Randy Royal, a city engineer on the project, said to commissioners. “I’ve never seen a proffer like this.”
Supporters of the project have urged the planning commission to vote yes on the application because it would help revive the struggling mall and bring business to the now-shuttered Sears anchor store. They say it will bring good-paying jobs. Opponents point to daily traffic clogs and worry what social implications gambling might have on the community.
Ultimately, the City Council will decide. They likely will take up the matter at a September 15 meeting.
Though the roughly 700 machines at the Rosie’s would look like traditional slots, the results are based on randomly chosen old horse races. That’s how the company gets around Virginia’s strict gambling laws — Rosie’s isn’t offering the same kind of wagers as a traditional casino, but “pari-mutuel” betting.
Deneau, a planning commissioner who has opposed the project from the beginning, said her beef wasn’t with Rosie’s. It was with the possible fallout from its location.
“The traffic is horrendous already,” Deneau said during Wednesday night’s meeting. “I don’t want to put another million and a half people on that road in any way shape or form.”
Gordon Rago, 757-446-2601, gordon.rago@pilotonline.com
