Officials tout Joliet Hollywood Casino site being a regional entertainment center

The new Hollywood Casino will feature a convention center, a half-dozen restaurants and bars, and features that reflect optimism for the future Joliet location at the crossing of Interstates 55 and 80.

Representatives from the casino company, land developer and local government gathered Wednesday at a ceremonial groundbreaking for what was described as the anchor project in the the Rock Run Collection development aimed at a potential market of 10 million people.

“We want to draw from everywhere,” said Mike Thoma, vice president and general manager of the casino.

Thoma pointed to the 230,000 vehicles a day that pass the site on the two interstates as the reason Hollywood will expand what it has to offer when it moves from its present location along Route 6.

The restaurants will be “best in class” and are expected to cater to a market that won’t necessarily be coming for the gambling, he said.

“With the dining experience that we’re going to offer, we’re going to draw people who haven’t been to our facility before,” Thoma said.

The $185 million casino project also will provide 850 slots and 44 table games. The convention center will be 10,000 square feet. The facility will include a retail sportsbook.

Hollywood Casino expects to employ 515 employees at the new facility, expanding its Joliet workforce by 150 jobs. The construction project is expected to create 450 jobs.

The plan is to open by late 2025 or early 2026.

Hollywood Casino will not have its own hotel, as it does on its existing site, but it will partner with one of two hotels said to have signed tentative agreements to build at Rock Run Collection.

Hollywood Casino, one of 43 casinos operated by Penn Entertainment, is the latest iteration of a casino that was started in 1992 by a local group that named it Empress Casino.

“There’s been a lot of things changed,” said Ed McGowan, one of the original Empress owners who attended the groundbreaking ceremony.

The original Empress operated on a riverboat, and McGowan said some of the early customers would hide in the restrooms to avoid being forced off the boat to adhere to a two-hour limit that was in place.

The groundbreaking ceremony paid homage to the Empress but was forward-looking into the possibilities for the casino and what is expected to surround it at the Rock Run Collection development.

“It will truly be a destination unlike any other,” said Diane Cullinan Oberhelman, chairwoman and founding partner of East Peoria-based Cullinan Properties, which is developing the site. “I think it will even rival Las Vegas.”

Cullian Oberhelman offered the 10 million count on the potential market for the casino, saying Rock Run Collection is being developed for a market that is expected to include the Chicago region as well as central Illinois and beyond.

Hollywood Casino is the first attraction to begin construction at the site, which is expected to bring in stores, restaurants and offices in addition to hotels. Construction for new apartments has started.

Doug Pryor, president and CEO for the Will County Center for Economic Development, called the casino “an anchor to bring people to the site.”

Despite the site being labeled as “the crossroads of mid-America” because of the two interstates that cross, development of the land has been a long time coming.

“Those of you who have been around here a long time know that this has been tried before,” Pryor said, referring to a previous developer who abandoned a similar venture after the 2008 recession hit.

State law had to be changed to accommodate casinos with no connection to water, Pryor said. State officials also had to be persuaded to build a new interchange now under construction to provide access to the site.

“This is going to be a game-changer,” Cullinan Oberhelman said, “and a true gateway to Chicago.”