DANVILLE, Va. – $750 million — that’s how much Caesars Virginia is now investing in Danville, nearly doubling their original agreement.
What started as a $400 million project has quickly become much more.
“No company is going to invest $750 million to build something in a community if they don’t think it’s going to be successful,” Danville City Manager Ken Larking said.
10 News met up with Danville City Manager Ken Larking after the agreement was adopted.
He tells us as the project moved along, needs changed.
“A lot of it has to do with scope and the rising cost of construction,” Larking said.
In addition to the increase in capital, the agreement also lowered the minimum number of employees from 1,300 to 900 — something Larking said is a byproduct of living in a post-pandemic economy.
“This recognizes that the world is different now, and they can do more with less because they’ve had to. They had to innovate and come up with new ways of doing things,” he said.
Larking said the agreement is mutually beneficial, giving Danville the option to buy back land to put a park on, as well as donating land for a public road.
“It’s the opportunity to have a trail system that goes through this area and connects the Schoolfield neighborhood back to the Riverwalk trail,” he said.
We reached out to Caesars to talk about the new agreement, but haven’t heard back.
But Larking said he is hopeful this investment will add onto the revenue the city is already seeing.
“It’s a great opportunity for an economic development redevelopment project that did not cost the city any money, that is actually producing a lot of revenue for our community and our city, and gets that site in a lot better condition than it used to be,” he said.
You can read a copy of the new agreement here, as well as the original.