It won't be long now before casino owners go from counting votes to counting chips. Hours after Ohioans approved casino gambling, developers went to work outlining their next moves. In Cincinnati, Broadway Commons is the site for the casino. Efforts over the years to put various projects there have failed. Now, a quarter of a billion dollars will be poured into what's now a 20 acre sea of pavement.
Local 12 Reporter Joe Webb is looking into the impact that money will have.
If you do the math, that means every square yard of pavement in these lots is now worth about 2,600-dollars. Broadway Commons has been touted for its potential value since backers wanted to build a new Reds stadium here in the late 90's. They think if a casino opens here in a couple of years, it could be a home run for the neighborhood. Developer Rock Ventures says this is what the Cincinnati casino could look like.
"It's not a ballpark. It's not as good as a ballpark."
Baseball on Broadway's biggest cheerleader struck out a few years ago, but is excited about a casino here.
Jim Tarbell, Former City Councilman: "This could be one of the most successful entertainment venues in recent history. Cincinnati is 200 miles before you get to anything like it in the arts, culture, entertainment infrastructure we have here in walking distance from where we're standing."
You're also in walking distance from a neighborhood that scares a lot of people away. Five years ago, Cincinnati Police installed a barricade to slow drug traffic coming in from Kentucky. There's also gunplay. Last summer, a young woman and two small children were killed, execution style, near 13th and Pendleton. The world famous Verdin Bell Company were urban pioneers here a generation ago. They see the casino as the cavalry finally arriving to help.
Jim Verdin, President, The Verdin Co. "It's great. Great. We'd rather have the casino as a neighbor than the shooters and drug people and dope addicts. So, we're excited about it."
Not everyone here is cheering. One of Verdin's neighbors thinks a casino would bring more trouble.
Carrie Rathod, Pendleton Resident: "Our concern with having a casino, like between my path from home to work, is it just attracts the wrong elements to what could be a really beautiful place downtown."
Regardless of what your opinion is, a major casino operation at this end of downtown will definitely change things. Jim Tarbell says there are nearly 400 vacant buildings within walking distance of this site. He expects a huge development here could spark pockets of small development nearby.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear issued a statement today regarding the passage of Issue Three in Ohio. Beshear says the vote reinforces the need for lawmakers to approve his plan to put video slow machines at Kentucky race tracks as soon as possible, so gambling dollars will say in Kentucky, instead of going to Ohio and Indiana.
