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Conditional license for racino is pulled
The background check for the developer and key track workers is nearly complete.
HILLSVILLE, Pa. — Developers of the Valley View Downs racino said they will work with their lenders to keep the project moving forward after a denial by the Pennsylvania State Gaming Control Board of a conditional Category I slots license.
The racetrack developers had hoped to obtain a conditional license by Tuesday to satisfy a requirement imposed by lenders for the $425 million project. The complex would be built near U.S. Route 422 and Pa. Route 551 in Mahoning Township in Lawrence County and already has obtained a harness racing license.
Susan Kilkenny, director of corporate marketing and public relations for Centaur Inc. of Indiana, the parent company of Valley View Downs, said the Tuesday deadline is still “of a critical nature.”
“We are clearly disappointed,” she said after Thursday’s hearing, “but we are focusing our time and energy on working with our lenders to find a solution.”
Valley View Downs had asked for the conditional license before a decision on a permanent license, which may not come until September. But the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board unanimously denied that request after a lengthy hearing in Harrisburg.
Board Chairman Mary DiGiacomo Colins noted that denial of the conditional license does not affect the chances of the facility’s ultimately obtaining a permanent license.
The board noted in a press release after the hearing that it is unwilling to issue a conditional license until background investigations have been completed on developers and key track employees, a normal part of the licensing process.
Kilkenny said Centaur officials were encouraged to learn, however, that the background investigations are “close to completion.”
Gary Pezzuolo, the Mahoning Township Supervisor chairman who attended the hearing along with Supervisors Poncho Exposito and Vito Yeropoli, said that despite the ruling, “We’re committed to it. There’s no turning back.”
He said the township will continue to keep pushing on its planning for the racino — or combination racetrack and casino — including moving forward on a sanitary sewer project that will serve the track and residential areas in Edinburg.
He said supervisors are scheduled to meet Monday with Penn-Vest, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, about the township’s application for an $11 million loan for that project.
Pezzuolo said Lawrence County commissioners were among local representatives attending the hearing and that Commissioner Dan Vogler addressed the gaming board.