The new 22,000-square-foot gaming space at Newport Grand will feature several Swarovski crystal chandeliers dangling from the ceiling along with an illuminated acrylic feature bordering the walls.
“The whole room is going to glow,” said Diane Hurley, CEO of the 31-year-old jai alai facility-turned-casino started by her father, Arthur Silvester.
The space also will include 835 new slot machines in the former jai alai fronton space, a new food court and a new simulcast area outfitted with flat-screen televisions on the second floor. Renovations will bring the casino’s slot count to 2,101.
In addition, there will be several life safety upgrades, including an updated alarm system, additional sprinklers and additional egress concessions. There also will be improvements to the building’s HVAC system. And the whole building will be made handicapped-accessible by adding access ramps to the renovated areas.
Newport Grand’s $20 million investment meets requirements of a November 2005 agreement with the state. In exchange, the casino will get a stabilized tax rate, meaning that taxes paid to the state will remain at the current 63.5 percentage rate until November 2005.
The agreement includes building a hotel on the site, but the hotel will have to wait, given that Hurley and her management team are now finally free to choose any location on the 24-acre site. Previously, the City of Newport had directed that a hotel would have to be built on one of two sections of the property farther away from the casino due to zoning issues, leading to a legal dispute.
However, after a successful appeal to the R.I. Superior Court on that point, as well as on the city’s decision not to permit slot machines in the former jai alai fronton space – because they would be a “nonconforming” use – Newport Grand is in the process of determining where best to locate a hotel.
The project is going forward after The Procaccianti Group pulled the plug on a much more ambitious plan for Newport Grand two months ago – the $1.4 billion O2 Newport proposal.
The project would have included a $155 million purchase of Newport Grand and redevelopment of the site into a mixed-use gaming, retail, office and residential “village-style” development with a Ritz-Carlton hotel and year-round recreational and entertainment facilities.
Procaccianti backed out of the deal after the General Assembly failed to grant a five-year extension of the stabilized state tax rate for video-slot revenues.
Keith W. Stokes, executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, said he believes it was a case of the private sector getting ahead of the public sector. He also heard that some people thought the project was moving too fast.
The smaller plan now underway, he said, “only creates additional value to the North End.”
The next critical step in attracting more development in the area will be for the city to take the lead by making a decision on whether to accept the North End Master Plan, Stokes said.
Asked whether she felt disappointed that Procaccianti backed out of the project, Hurley would not comment. But she did say she agrees that the North End needs to be redeveloped.
“The reality is in Newport there is no land available for development except for [the North End],” Hurley said. “This is the natural welcoming center for the City of Newport, and it needs to be developed.”
Hurley said she is welcoming inquiries from parties looking to purchase Newport Grand and redevelop the site, but no plans are even close to fruition since O2 Newport’s demise.
In the meantime, Newport Grand will add about 100 employees to its 200-employee staff once the $20 million project, financed by BankNewport, is completed next summer, Hurley said.
She added that the project is using Rhode Island-based contractors, subcontractors, engineers, architects and designers, including Warwick-based Di Leonardo International, the firm that designed the Hotel Providence and a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Egypt.
“We really tried to make a commitment to local,” Hurley said. •
