CASINO IN LEMAY IS ON TRACK TO OPEN IN MARCH
by Christopher Boyce
May 14, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Business Section
Pinnacle Entertainment's $375 million casino project in Lemay is 50 percent completed and scheduled to open in March 2010, the company's project director said Wednesday.
The River City Casino was originally scheduled to open in 2008. However, Las Vegas-based Pinnacle pushed back the opening several times while it attempted to tamper escalating construction costs and focused on completing its other metro-area casino, Lumière Place.
The main structure for River City is now floating on its barge. The water basin it sits in along the Mississippi River was filled with water in late April, bringing it in line with state rules that require the casino to float in a moat, said Bob Herr of Pinnacle's design and construction group. Herr gave a project update at a Lemay Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Part of an access road that runs east from Interstate 55 at Weber Road to Broadway on the south side of the River Des Peres will be completed by July, Herr said. The final stretch will be completed when the casino opens in 2010.
When completed, River City will be the seventh casino in the St. Louis area, following Lumiere Place, Argosy Alton, Ameristar, Casino Queen, Harrah's and the President, which is also owned by Pinnacle.
The company still plans to spend another $75 million to build an adjoining hotel within a year opening the casino.
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