Norfolk Casino Developers Seek Local Approval for $500M HeadWaters Resort
The developers behindhand the Norfolk casino projection called HeadWaters petitioned the city’s Architectural Review Board on Monday even for favorable reception of the $500 zillion undertaking.
The Pamunkey Native American Tribe, i of VII tribal nations with federal credit inwards Virginia, partnered with Norfolk officials in 2020 after the metropolis was designated as a qualifying commercial-grade cassino boniface location.
Virginia’s 2020 gaming visor allowed cities group meeting a slew of economical hardships to moot authorizing a cassino development through a local referendum. One criterion was a metropolis experiencing a population step-down of at least 20% between 1990 to 2016.
The Pamunkeys are a small folk consisting of to a lesser extent than 100 tribal members. The monarch country is placed nearly 60 miles nor'-west of Norfolk inward Riley B King William County along the Pamunkey River. Since the federation of tribes has no more see underdeveloped or operating a casino, the Pamunkeys brought on billionaire tribal gaming vet Jon Yarbrough as an investor and advisor.
Project Pitch
The Norfolk Architectural Review Board considered the Pamunkey proposal during its group meeting on Mon night. Developers told the urban center bureau that HeadWaters would follow built inward two phases, with the foremost form consisting of a 90,000-square-foot composite with a roughly 45,000-square-foot casino, a 5,000-square-foot lobby, 4,500-square-foot sports bar, and a parking anatomical structure with 1,200 spaces. The budget for the number 1 phase is some $100 million.
Phase deuce would include the holiday resort and its amenities. Along with a 300-room hotel overlooking the Elizabeth I River, the indorse phase would feature film several restaurants, a spa, a rooftop pool, an entertainment space, and an events center.
Norfolk’s Architectural Review Board reviews unexampled expression projects set within the city’s local historic districts. Since HeadWaters is targeting vacant earth contiguous to the Harbor Mungo Park small conference baseball stadium, which is inside a historic dominion on the riverfront, the Architectural Review Board must world-class sanction the gambling casino resort hotel be after by issuing the developers a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA).
Architectural Review Board members did conjure up some concerns Monday evening, though nada to potential result inward a electronegative ballot for the developers when the office meets inwards deuce weeks to voting on the project. Board comments include recommendations that more landscaping live included inwards the prosaic walkway along the riverfront.
Once the COA is inwards hand, the contrive testament relocation to the Norfolk Planning Commission for final approval. HeadWaters officials say expression of the first-class honours degree stage is expected to have a little more than a year. The cassino is to include 1,000 gaming positions, inclusive of slots and tabularize gamey seats. The installation testament also include a sportsbook.
Mysterious Partnership
It remains unclear wherefore the Norfolk City Council seemed to render druthers to the Pamunkeys over other potency gaming developers through a competitory bidding process. The federation of tribes claims to have hereditary ties to the Norfolk region, but the project is a commercial message endeavor, not a tribal casino.
One theory is that the Pamunkeys could hold pursued a tribal casino inwards Norfolk that might experience caused securities industry chroma concerns should the urban center get gone with another gaming developer.
The federal Amerindic Gaming Regulatory Act allows federally recognised tribes to run Class I and II gaming on crowned head lands. Though those classes don’t include Las Vegas-style slots and house-banked tabular array games the like sap and roulette, Yarbrough made his portion by underdeveloped electronic tribal gaming machines that look, sound, and seemingly control similarly to traditional slots but are bingo-based.
Class I and II gaming consists of bingo and non-banked card games similar poker.