Developer spent $2M to get OK to move casino

By JAMES NASH

The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

The future developer of the Columbus casino spent more than $2 million to persuade Ohioans to move it from the Arena District to the West Side, accounting for about half of the contributions to the successful campaign.

Penn National Gaming Inc., which initially resisted the idea of switching the casino location, ultimately joined forces with corporate interests that had fought the Arena District site. All told, backers of the casino move raised $4.2 million, according to campaign-finance reports filed Friday.

There was no organized opposition and no money spent to defeat the measure.The issue passed easily, gaining more than 68 percent of the vote and majorities in every county.

Last year, Penn National and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert spent more than $47 million to persuade Ohioans to approve casinos in the Arena District and the downtowns of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Shortly after the issue passed with 53 percent of the vote statewide, Columbus business interests leaned on Penn National to change the location of the local casino. They argued that the Arena District was a poor site for a 24-hour gambling operation.

In addition to Penn National, major contributors to the casino-move campaign included Arena District landowners Nationwide Realty ($1 million), American Electric Power ($500,000) and The Dispatch Printing Company, which, together with subsidiary Wolfe Enterprises, contributed nearly $470,000, including free newspaper advertising. Limited Brands chipped in $100,000.

Individuals contributed $20,149, accounting for less than 0.5 percent of the money raised to have the casino moved.

Penn National has begun clearing the site of a former auto-parts factory on W. Broad Street for the Columbus casino, which is scheduled to open in late 2012.

In the other statewide issue on the ballot, proponents of the Third Frontier program to encourage economic innovation spent $3.2 million to persuade voters to renew the program.

The Third Frontier issue was bolstered by late six-figure contributions from Limited Brands and Battelle ($150,000 apiece), the University of Cincinnati ($110,000) and Ohio State University ($100,000). Eleven other Ohio universities added at least $10,000 each.

The campaign’s only major out-of-state contribution was $10,000 from Merchandise Mart Properties in Chicago.