Beloit can’t wait to get casino started
Town and residents see it as another sign of recovery and makeover
BELOIT - Nikkie Chadwick isn’t much of a gambler, but the Beloit businesswoman is all in on the city’s push to bring a casino and entertainment venue to town.
Last week, Chadwick was thrilled when Gov. Tony Evers gave approval for the Ho-Chunk Nation to build a $405 million casino on a 73-acre patch of farmland just off Interstate 39/90.
It could still be around a year before the first shovelful of dirt is turned, and much longer before the clatter of coins dropping from slots is heard.
“I think it’s going to be good for our economy as a whole, the jobs it’s going to bring and the help it’s going to bring to our small businesses,” said Chadwick, who owns Walnut Creek Apparel and Gifts, a small shop in the revitalized downtown along the Rock River.
To the proponents of the project, and there are many here, the casino is another sign of Beloit’s recovery and makeover in a post-industrial age.
Besides the casino, the Ho-Chunk plans include building a convention center, 300-room hotel and 40,000-square-foot indoor water park. Two-thousand jobs would be created during construction.
And once built out, 1,500 permanent jobs would
be created, under the plans, making the casino the largest employer in Beloit.
To some opponents, bringing in a casino just isn’t worth the risk, with the chance that problem-gambling will hurt local residents. There’s also a competitive factor. Just 20 miles down the interstate in Rockford, Illinois, a Hard Rock Casino has received initial approvals.
Celestino Ruffini, chief executive officer of Visit Beloit, describes the project as something that would put Beloit on the map to host conventions and other large events.
“Now we have a chance to prove ourselves,” he said. “Beloit is a place you want to be.”
The city’s transformation has been underway for two decades, the resurgence powered by Diane Hendricks, and her late husband Ken Hendricks. They helped revitalize the downtown even as they grew their roofing business, ABC Supply, into a national leader.
The latest project to rise downtown: construction of a $35 million, 3,500seat state-of-the-art baseball stadium, near City Hall. The minor league Beloit Snappers are due to move into the park later this year.
Jeff Jurgella, president of Gateway Professional Baseball, which oversees the Snappers, recalls his job interview when he came to Beloit for the first time in many years.
“I was amazed with what downtown Beloit had become,” he said. “Drove around the ballpark. Stopped to have lunch downtown. It was, man, what Hallmark holiday movie set have I driven onto. It’s incredible the momentum they have generated here.”
“The ballpark is one big exclamation point,” he added.
The casino would provide another exclamation point.
The push to bring a casino to Beloit has taken decades, with various tribes making overtures, including the Bad River and St. Croix Chippewa.
The Ho-Chunk Nation entered the fray in 2012. In April 2020, the U.S. Department of Interior signed off on the project.
Last week, Evers concurred with the federal decision to put into trust 32 acres of land for the casino development,
Rod Gottfredsen, 68, is seen Thursday at Austin's Barber Shop, 316 State St., Beloit. “I personally do not believe the city of Beloit residents will ever see the reality of what's been promised for the past 20 years,” he said.
which is part of a 73-acre site.
There are still some hurdles to go, most noteworthy, the tribe and Evers finalizing their agreement on casino operations.
Regina Dunkin, Beloit City Council president, is thrilled by the project that comes “as our community strives to recover from the impact of COVID-19.”
“This project is a long time coming and a game-changer for Beloit in terms of jobs created, shared revenues and increased tourism,” she said.
Lori Curtis Luther, Beloit city manager, said the city is in negotiations with the tribe on a development agreement.
“It’s likely to be a multiyear project, just because it’s so big,” she said.
She said the casino projects in Beloit and Rockford “can co-exist.”
“I don’t view Rockford as a threat,” she said, noting the Hard Rock Casino is smaller than the Beloit project.
“Given the total scope of the HoChunk Nation’s plans in Beloit with the hotel, convention center, multiple restaurants, I think that we’re very well positioned,” she said.
Luther said the casino “will make Beloit more of a destination. This is an opportunity for us to expand our horizons in regards to being a place that people are drawn to from outside the immediate region.”
She said, “People in Beloit overwhelmingly support the project and are excited about the job opportunities and economic stability that it will bring.” Not everyone is on board, though. Rod Gottfredsen, who for decades has run Austin’s Barber Shop, wrote his first letter to the editor opposing the casino back in 2000.
“Casinos breed selfishness and greed,” he wrote in the Beloit Daily News. “Is that what we want for our Beloit?”
His stance hasn’t changed. He sees a casino as a net negative for the community and worries about people losing their hard-earned cash. He also said the city is in a far different place economically than it was when casino plans were first floated in the late 1990s.
But he’s not willing to predict failure for the project.
“As much as I oppose it morally, I’m not sure I could say that I think it’s not going to work,” he said.
In April 2020, Jeffrey Adams, an emeritus economics professor at Beloit College, wrote Gov. Evers and asked him to intensely scrutinize the Ho-Chunk plan. He noted that there were two alternatives for the casino, a full build-out with all the amenities and a pareddown project with reduced casino and commercial development.
Fearing the city would be stuck with the smaller project, Adams wrote: “The tribe and its local allies have been engaged in a long-term bait-and-switch public relations gambit that, after the switch takes place, will be disastrous for the average Beloit and Rock County citizen.”
Luther, the Beloit city manager, said the federal government approved the full build-out.
“The city is going to wait for the final design before completing the development agreement, which will provide additional assurance of the total project build-out and timeline,” she said.
Ryan Greendeer, a spokesman for the Ho-Chunk, said the tribe is planning to build the full project. But he acknowledged COVID-19 and its aftermath could result in changes. Casinos, like much of the tourism and leisure industry, suffered severely during the pandemic.
“As we went into the pandemic we thought perhaps if there is a new normal that we might have to revise some plans for public health reasons,” he said.
But he remained confident that the project would benefit the tribe and the city.
“It’s going to be the economic cornerstone of the pandemic recovery,” he said. “The jobs, the economy. It’s going to help bolster the area. it’s going to be a good win-win situation for all involved.”