Isle Casino Tri-Rail station gets approval
When the massive overhaul of the Isle Casino eventually takes shape, many of the gamblers, shoppers, office workers and residents who will visit and live there could very well arrive by Tri-Rail.
The board of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the Tri-Rail commuter line, has given its blessing to a new station near the proposed 230-acre redevelopment project at Isle Casino Racing Pompano Park in Pompano Beach. It would be situated on the CSX railroad right of way, which Tri-Rail trains use to carry commuters among cities in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
The Tri-Rail track is right by the Isle Casino property. “That’s a natural for them to want to put a train station there,” said Greg Harrison, city manager of Pompano Beach.
While Pompano Beach has no role in the station’s placement, it has assigned additional staffers to process the developers’ requests for zoning changes for LIVE! Pompano Resorts. The city is in the midst of a major overhaul of its downtown and surrounding areas, with a number of projects underway.
The Isle Casino redevelopment project, a joint venture of owner Eldorado Resorts of Reno, Nevada, and the Cordish Cos. of Baltimore, would offer a “live-work-play atmosphere” within more than 230 acres, according to documents filed with the city. The companies envision 4,100 residential units, 950 hotel rooms, an 18-screen movie theater, nearly 1.4 million square feet of office space and a 300-seat jai alai fronton. The casino would grow to more than 140,000 square feet. The project is expected to unfold in phases over the next decade, with an anticipated completion in 2029, according to a letter from Cordish to the authority.
In a resolution, the authority’s board gave conceptual support for the development and a new station. It also agreed to help the developer obtain federal funding for the construction and operation of the station. But the authority was careful to stay off the hook for any financial commitments.
Its support, according to the resolution, comes with the understanding that if federal funding is not obtained and Cordish elects to move forward, the developer “shall be 100 percent financially responsible for the design, construction and operation of the station.”
Tri-Rail trains already stop at a Pompano Beach station to the north of the site and at a station near Cypress Creek Road in Fort Lauderdale, some 1.5 miles to the south.
At a city planning and zoning meeting in late July, Cordish attorney Debbie Orshefsky said the developer is sensitive to minimizing traffic in the area, which is south of Atlantic Boulevard, east of Powerline Road and west of the railroad and I-95.
According to documents submitted to the city, transportation would include biking, city shuttles and county mass transit and “potentially rail, thus reducing the need and demand for individual vehicles and the need and demand to park all of the individual vehicles.”