Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Oaklawn expansion taking off
Pace of $100 million project surprises track’s employees
HOT SPRINGS — Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort has made such rapid progress on its more than $100 million expansion since the close of the live race meet May 4 that it even takes longtime employees by surprise, as the track’s spokeswoman discovered firsthand last week.
“It’s funny, yesterday I pulled in through the Golf Links entrance and saw that the one thing that was still there was the trailer office that belonged to the Arkansas (Thoroughbred) Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association,” Jennifer Hoyt, media relations manager, told The Sentinel-Record during a tour of the grounds Thursday.
“Deana Echols, who’s their executive (secretary), came in about 15 minutes after me and they had moved it. So that’s how quickly we’re moving things along here. That was the last thing that was standing from the old site of the stable gate, and they got that moved.”
In recent weeks, the traffic signal at Central and Woodlawn avenues has been taken out of service and the track’s south parking lot entrance has moved farther south. A crane now towers over the site where a new high-rise hotel and event center will be located. Some familiar landmarks have also disappeared and will be relocated on the premises.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in a short amount of time,” Hoyt said Thursday. A new traffic signal will be placed at the new entrance, now located in the 3000 block of Central, in early July, she said.
The track kitchen, formerly located on the east side of Oaklawn’s parking lot toward the barn area, will be moved to the area of 175 Golf Links Road, in the general vicinity of Oaklawn Chapel.
“It is an ambitious plan, but we’re moving right along with it,” Hoyt said. “We have a whole new (vice president) of hospitality, Saddiq Mir. So I think he’ll start putting a flair on things, but obviously (the track kitchen) is going to be a place for people to come. It’s still going to be open to the public, but obviously still serving the needs of our backstretch workers.”
Hoyt said the former site of the track kitchen is where the new event center will be located, with the attached hotel facing the track.
“If you can picture where the track kitchen used to be, the right-hand far corner of that is where the (event) center is going to be,” she said. “Then the hotel leads up closer to the track with, obviously, getting the track views in.”
An expanded gaming floor of 28,000 additional square feet is on track to open prior to the 2020 live race meet. The hotel and event center are set to open ahead of the 2021 meet and the “outer shell” of the hotel should be complete ahead of the upcoming live meet, she said.
“The goal is that the hotel will have the outer shell built by the end of the year. And with our new racing season, it does buy us almost an extra month because we won’t be starting until Jan. 24. Whereas previously we would be opening earlier,” she said.
“The goal is that once we get the outer structure built, (crews) are working inside so that there won’t be cranes or anything up. … This will be the main area of concentration and obviously, they’ll work around the training schedule. The goal is that most of the work will be inside the hotel.”
Oaklawn began building six new barns during the 2019 live meet and Hoyt said the barns being replaced are 50 to 60 years old. The newer barns will have more cinder block than wood.
“We will have built 15 new barns since 2015 which is pretty amazing when you consider that no other racetrack in the country is making that kind of investment into their racing program,” she said. The new barns aren’t adding many new stalls but instead replacing barns with more adequate space.
“We’re going to gain a little bit of stall space, but for the most part, we’re just replacing what we had with newer modern barns,” Hoyt said. “The advantage to that is we’ve pretty much found that between 1,500 and 1,600 horses is about perfect for the length of our race meet and keeping our races filled. We still average one of the highest field sizes in the country. Our racing secretary, Pat Pope, has a formula and he’s done really well with it.
“Obviously, this is nothing new to us. This is the third major expansion since 2009 and the horsemen have always been very cooperative. They understand that with our growth, so will their growth be.”
On Thursday, the Arkansas Racing Commission approved sports betting at Oaklawn which will begin July 1. General Manager Wayne Smith said Oaklawn is excited for this addition as “it’s a new level of entertainment for our guests.”
“We’ve made a lot of progress in a short amount of time,” Hoyt said Thursday. A new traffic signal will be placed at the new entrance, now located in the 3000 block of Central, in early July, she said.