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Vote on racino platting delayed
By Elise Franco
Austintown
The Mahoning County Planning Commission will have to wait another month to vote on the assembly of parcels that will make up the Hollywood Slots at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
Penn National is relocating the racino from Beulah Park, a track it owns near Columbus, to the 186-acre Centerpointe property in Austintown, off state Route 46 near the Interstate 80 interchange.
The planning commission had planned to vote on the item during its Tuesday meeting but learned earlier that day that the Mahoning County commissioners must first approve the plat of land, said Robert Lidle, planning commission chairman.
“We were informed that because of the structure, one other step must be taken,” Lidle said. “It’s procedural, and is approval from the [county] commissioners.”
Penn National purchased the Centerpointe property in April for $4.6 million and is spending $250 million to locate the facility. Of that, $100 million will be spent on the slot machines, a restaurant, entertainment facility and retail businesses; and $25 million for the thoroughbred racetrack, grandstand and stables, Timothy J. Wilmott, Penn National’s president and chief operating officer, has said.
County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said the board is working to put the item to a vote during its Thursday meeting and doesn’t foresee any issue in getting it approved.
Righetti said after the county commissioners approve the item, it will return to the planning commission for a vote during its November meeting.
She said it’s important to move the process as quickly as possible because, “We’re ready. We need the jobs.”
The facility will have live racing about 55 to 60 days a year and simulcast races from other tracks, and will create 1,000 direct and indirect jobs and about 1,000 construction jobs, officials have said.
Lidle said once the planning commission approves the plat of land, the site planning can begin. Penn National officials have projected that the racino will open in 2014.