Homewood Casino Plan Begins to Take Form
Jobs, entertainment and funding for education are all anticipated to come along with a South Suburban casino should Homewood secure its development.
Plans for an “economic development engine” are starting to take shape after last Monday’s information meeting, hosted jointly with East Hazel Crest.
While specific details, such as revenue approximations and casino concepts are slated to be answered later on in the process, the village is sketching a vision of what a future Homewood casino might look like.
The casino will bring along with it an entire entertainment package, including a South Suburban hotel, according to the village’s legal counsel Craig Burkhardt. With that package comes about 1,000 jobs, according to Burkhardt.
“These are good, solid, highly-paying jobs that support families that send their kids to college,” Burkhardt said.
The issue of security and fear of an increased crime rate is a major concern for many residents. Burkhardt based his answer to those concerns on past experience.
He grew up in Homewood and played ball at Izaak Walton Preserve—in the shadow of the former Washington Park Racetrack. Burkhardt says the pristine reputation and character of Homewood remained unscathed then and there’s no reason the same shouldn’t apply now. On the contrary, Burkhardt credited Washington Park with funding many of the things he enjoyed in his youth, like musical education.
The villages aren’t relying entirely on precedent. In addition to state of the art security at the actual casino, money will go directly to Homewood first responders for the addition of extra officers and firefighters.
Revenue from the casino will also reach Homewood School District 153, H-F High School, H-F Parks, the library and beyond, according to Burkhardt.
“It would … endow a lot of things that are very important to us,” Burkhardt said. “This can be expansively beneficial across the South Suburbs.”
More details on this will come once the village puts out a request for proposals (RFP). At that point, one of about 15 national casino companies will vie for our interest, leaving the village in the enviable position to pick the best choice for us. Once a partnership is reached, the casino will reimburse Homewood and East Hazel Crest for all the incurred expenses of the process thus far.
That’s still months away, though, and even if everything did go according to plan, a casino might not break ground for several years.
“This is just the very, very beginning process,” Burkhardt said. “There will be much more opportunity for people to directly … participate in an exchange of ideas.”
SRJ
9:08 am on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Great news for this dying HF community!
Brooke
9:59 am on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
....DYING? oh please. *facepalm*
kkwas
10:20 am on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Dying? Let's not get so dramatic.
JR
12:34 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF WE GET SOME KIND OF A TAX BREAK OUT OF THIS
Sadb
3:44 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Why worry about a casino in Homewood thats not breaking ground for a few years, how many years have the tax payers been waiting for Peotone airport to break ground, another Wet Dream!!!
Juvenal
4:19 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
And where exactly does Burkhardt, "Mr. Homewood" reside these days?
John Kearns
4:22 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The majority of the land is in East Hazel Crest.The residents of Homewood will get a nice benifit from any facility built. This location is superior to any other because it is just off the interstate and its imprint will have little effect on the neighborhoods in Homewood other than lowering your property taxes and receiving better village services.
Jon Azavedo
5:00 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Who in their right mind will go to a casino in Homewood? Homewood hasn't been a good place to live since about 1975, and even then it was the ugly duckling step sister to Flossmoor. Building that shopping center on the old racetrack site was the beginning of the end. Anyone remember the Royal Blue grocery, Toy Box, Ben Franklins, the old donut shop? Quaint, moderate priced housing easy access to the city by train. Now? An unsafe dump, surrounded by even more dangerous and decrepit towns, Dream on-the airport aint happening, either is the casino. Good luck w/ that boutique hotel.
Gary Dingle
12:41 am on Thursday, December 20, 2012
I don't really care much for gambling. It is non-productive. It wastes resources that could be put to better and productive use. At the end of the day we have nothing to show, no product nothing but money stolen from fools who enjoy losing money that could be used to improve their homes, save for their kids’ college or invest/save for retirement. People who gamble all the time are probably suffering from an addiction. I am not talking about professional gamblers. It eludes me why any public entity would engage in profiting from people afflicted with gambling addiction.
http://www.medicinenet.com/gambling_addiction/article.htm
Steve
8:53 am on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Without smoking this Casino will have an uphill fight to make money!
Lisa Landvogt
10:25 pm on Monday, December 24, 2012
Another Hofeld GREAT idea (BUST pardon the pun) nobody wanted the OTB either and we all know how that turned out.
sarah
7:06 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
It would be good if east hazel creat and homewood work togeather on this then maybe east hazel crest kids can go to homewood schools and we can stop paying for privite school.
citizenJ
4:56 pm on Monday, February 25, 2013
Another financial boon-doggle and distraction from running a little village brought to you by president Hoelfeld and friends. Can't you voters get some new blood? Time to move on Heir Holdfeld! At least a different town where you can be a "mayor"
without changing laws to do it!