Hard Rock International to Start Building Permanent Casino in Bristol This Month
Hard Rock plans to break ground on its permanent Bristol Casino this month. As the Bristol Herald Courier newspaper reported, Allie Evangelista, Hard Rock Bristol President, disclosed that construction would commence at the permanent casino site within the next few weeks, the schedules still to be finalized.
The project costing $400 million will be built from the ground up and is targeted to be completed in 2024. There will be 100,000 square feet of gaming area in the permanent casino with 100 table games, 2,700 slot machines and a retail sportsbook. The property will also include a 300-room hotel, a Hard Rock Cafe, 14 restaurants, a 2,000-seat indoor concert space as well as an outdoor amphitheater that can accommodate 20,000 people.
Note that Bristol was among five cities in Virginia that were given the opportunity to open a casino by the state and among four ones to have its voters approve the measure in a referendum two years ago. 70% of Bristol’s residents approved the construction of a casino in the city, and it was the highest result compared to three other cities where the casino measure was approved as well: Danville (69%), Portsmouth (67%) and Norfolk (65%).
Hard Rock opened its Bristol’s temporary gambling facility last July at the former Bristol Mall with a total space of 80,000 square feet. A 30,000-square-foot gaming area offers 21 table games, 870 slot machines and the first-in-state retail sportsbook having 15 self-service machines and five betting windows.
The temporary facility has provided an economic boost for the area right off the bat: a total of $4.7 million in taxes was paid after 55 days having nearly doubled after 90 days. Besides, the venue has also been a significant local job-provider as it has at least 600 employees that are paid $18 or more per hour.
In other news, Gaming Realms launched in Connecticut through the partnership with DraftKings.
