SHELVED PLANS WILL BE REVISITED
not here, what’s not here and what can we put at Silverton so this becomes a magnet for all of our local customers.”
The Silverton plans to tie the shopping village and the casino together by letting customers use their players card points to shop and dine at village outlets.
“We do that already internally with Johnny Rockets, Starbucks and Bass Pro Shop,” Cavileer said. “Now we want the whole village to be open to members of the Silverton to use all the new facilities to use their points.”
As the economy improves, Cavileer said, the company also plans to revisit expansion plans scrapped during the recession.
Just before the economic downturn of 2007, the Silverton was getting ready to undertake a $400 million expansion that included a 400-room hotel tower, convention space, a rooftop club and a new pool with an outdoor night club.
The project was mothballed after the financing fell through, which turned out to be a stroke of luck, Cavileer said.
“Very disappointed at the time; couldn’t believe it,” he said. “How did everybody else get their deals done and we didn’t? It was about 12 months later and we thought we were the luckiest guys in the world.
“As some of the companies struggled with bankruptcy, we didn’t. It’s good to be lucky, and timing matters a lot.”
It’s unlikely the Silverton would move forward with the 2007 expansion as originally envisioned, Cavileer said.
“I wouldn’t have a 25,000-square-foot nightclub on top of the tower. We would do it a lot different,” he said.
But, he said, “We need more rooms, and we need meeting space and some functional entertainment. We need to continue to grow and give more reasons for people to be here.”