(SIOUX CITY, IA) Just in time for the November 5th deadline, Penn National, operator of the Argosy casino boat, offered up two land-based casino proposals.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has until April of 2013 to decide which proposal (of the four offered by Penn, Ho-Chunk Inc., and the Sioux City Entertainment/MRHD joint partnership) it will choose.
But Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott says the lack of communication between Sioux City and Penn could hurt the Argosy boat come January.
One of Penn's proposed locations is just north of Gordon Drive for a development called Hollywood Casino Sioux City. The other proposal is set just east of I-29's Port Neal exit. While it made the proposal deadline for a land-based casino, Scott says Penn needs to shift its focus to the Argosy, because that casino could be in trouble.
On January 31st, 2013 the lease agreement between the Argosy Casino and Sioux City will expire.
"We're going to have to ask them to leave, if they don't come in to re-negotiate, simply because we cant treat them any different than anyone else who rents property from the City," says Mayor Scott.
Scott says he has reached out to Penn National several times over the last few weeks to talk about extending the Argosy's lease until a land-based casino is built, but now says he's lost hope.
"I wrote them the first e-mail, and said if we're going to do one here in town we'll be glad to sit down and negotiate with you, but it's taken five e-mails for them to not even get to the stage where we can have a meeting, so I've lost interest to tell you the truth," says Scott.
Which means more than 300 hundred jobs could be thrown overboard, when the Argosy pulls anchor.
"We can't treat them any different than anyone else who rents property from the City, they can't, they're not grand fathered in, a lease is a lease," Scott says.
Penn National's two land-based casino proposals are priced at more than $160 million. Penn National's new non-profit partner, Greater Siouxland Improvement Association, says Penn National is misunderstood.
"Penn has given $20 million to MRHD, which is their three percent, and they've also given three percent to the city, and less than one-third of that to the county, so they've given forty-some million dollars to three government agencies in Sioux City, I have trouble seeing them as a bad neighbor," says Greater Siouxland Improvement Association's Chair, and former Woodbury County Treasurer, Bob Knowler.
Scott says the two proposals from Penn will give up to 4.1 percent revenue to its non-profit organization, but currently there are no plans of giving any revenue to the City.
Sioux City Entertainment's Hard Rock proposal will give 3 percent to the city and 4.5 percent to its non-profit group, Missouri River Historical Development, and that cut could get larger as the casino brings in more money.
Hleigh@Siouxlandnews.com
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