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Good bet racino will bring spinoffs
U.S. Route 422 will become a main route for people visiting the racino.
A racino is going to spring up soon in Lawrence County, four miles from the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line.
The combination harness racing track and casino will be large — six acres under roof with 3,000 slot machines and restaurants, and a mile-long track.
The area, off routes 422 and 551, is sleepy right now.
But once ground is broken for Valley View Downs, on 250 acres near Baird Road in Mahoning Township, the complex could draw as many as 14,000 people a day.
That’s going to mean more traffic for U.S. Route 422 from downtown Youngstown, its East Side and through the rural areas — Coitsville into Pennsylvania.
What’s the potential for spinoff development?
On the Pennsylvania side of the state line, Lawrence County has been contemplating that question since Centaur Gaming Inc., the Indiana company that will develop Valley View Downs, was awarded its harness racing license by the state in September.
Jobs will be generated too — 1,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent full- and part-time positions are expected.
And, businesses in New Castle are anticipating the lure of the racino.
On the Ohio side of the state line, they want to be prepared as well. A group has formed there to make sure the Mahoning Valley can take advantage of the extra traffic the racino will generate on Route 422. The logical and shortest distance for people getting there from Ohio is Youngstown via Interstate 680 to Oak Street to Route 422, says Bill DeCicco, a spokesperson for the U.S. 422 Development Strategy Group.
The group includes volunteers from Youngstown, Mahoning County, Coitsville, Campbell, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the Regional Chamber and the CASTLO Community Improvement Corp. in Struthers. It formed about a month ago, said DeCicco, of CASTLO. It’s planning to look into issues such as traffic safety on the highway; land availability and zoning for development; utilities, such as sewer line extensions; and marketing to draw racino visitors to other interesting spots in the Mahoning Valley.
Racinos are horse or greyhound race tracks that have casinos. In some cases, the casino games are limited to slot machines or video lottery terminals only. Many locations are beginning to include table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette, according to the Web site racinos.com.
Eleven states have already approved the operation of racinos, the Web site says.
Casinos are mostly being added to existing tracks, said Rick Kelly, spokesman for Centaur, and that boosts attendance there.
Valley View will be unusual in that respect, he said — its casino and track are being built at the same time.
What other development will it prompt on largely rural 422?
Hotels, restaurants, fast-food chains and travel centers are good guesses, said Dan Vogler, a Lawrence County commissioner who addressed the new 422 corridor group last week.
In Dauphin County, Pa., where a casino opened in February at an existing thoroughbred racetrack, there has been more of that type of development, said Dan Robinson, the county’s economic development director.
The Penn National race track is only a mile away from Interstate 81 in rural East Hanover Township, Robinson said.
He said the restaurants coming in are not “high-end.”
“Pizza parlors,” he said, are an example.
He said that though hotels in the area have been around for years, they added on and upgraded their rooms since the casino got its gaming license 36 months ago.
He also said that there is interest in future development in the area from restaurants and strip-mall developers “but I’m not sure where that will go.” There is more land available, he said — “but the municipality isn’t going out of their way to rezone it.”
He said a lot of the farmland in the township is still being farmed, but it’s hard to say what will happen.
The number of cars on the road, he said, is up more than 100 percent from six months ago.
There’s been a lot of residential growth in the area, he said, and some of that could be related to the casino. Mainly though, he said, it’s because the area now has state-mandated sewers.
In Coitsville, said DeCicco, sewers extend only 0.3 miles along 422. Mahoning County has an application pending for federal funding to extend the lines, he said.
“Development is going to go where they can tap into sewers,” he said.
DeCicco said the group intends to get property owners involved. It will research what land is available for development and whether zoning is compatible for it. He said extending water and gas lines, traffic safety, and improving lights and signs along the road are other considerations.
There’s no reason, he said, that some of those projected jobs couldn’t belong to Mahoning Valley residents.
Then, there’s marketing — for the Chevrolet Centre, Youngstown State University, Stambaugh Auditorium and other cultural centers, and the area’s golf courses and lakes.
DeCicco said that within a 100-mile radius of the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, there are 10 million people.
“We have a sizeable number who can get here in an hour and a half,” he said. “We have a lot to offer. We think we can keep them here for other reasons. It could become a way to showcase and stimulate economic development.”