Hard Rock Casino Rockford breaks ground
Construction has begun on the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Rockford, Illinois.
US.- Construction has begun on Hard Rock’s Rockford casino project in Illinois. Hard Rock has broken ground for the permanent facility on East State Street close to the entrance of Interstate 90. The permanent venue will replace Hard Rock’s current temporary casino in Rockford.
City officials and Hard Rock representatives took part in the groundbreaking ceremony at the empty 25-acre field that will become a $310m resort. The project is expected to provide 1,200 permanent jobs and 1,000 during construction.
The Hard Rock Casino Rockford resort to include a 65,000-square-foot casino with about 1,500 slot machines, a sportsbook and about 60 table games, including blackjack, roulette and craps. It may also include a poker room of 10-12 tables. Hard Rock has plans to add a 250-room hotel to the resort.
The venue is also expected to offer plenty of food options with a Hard Rock Café, Council Oak Steakhouse, YouYu authentic Asian cuisine restaurant and a food hall with a common seating area and up to five counter-service options.
There will also be a Hard Rock Live event centre that can serve as a 23,500-square-foot conference centre or 1,600-seat live concert venue. Hard Rock will provide the city of Rockford with a guaranteed $7m a year. It will also pay city impact fees of 1 per cent of its adjusted gross receipts for the first two years of operations and 0.5 per cent of adjusted gross receipts for each year after that.
Hard Rock has also agreed to provide $150,000 annually to support economic development in at-risk or impoverished areas of the city.
Revenue at Illinois casinos totals $117.3m in August
The Illinois Gaming Board has released its casino revenue report for August. According to the figures, the eleven casinos in the state generated revenue of $117.3m. That’s a drop of 4.5 per cent from July’s $122.9m but an increase of 10.4 per cent month-on-month.
Video gaming terminals (VGTs) saw a slight increase in net terminal income (NTI) to $226.9m, up 0.5 per cent from July. Table games revenue hit $29.8m, an increase of 3.2 per cent mont-to-month. Slot revenue was $87.5m, 6.9 per cent lower than July’s $94m.
