The Quapaw Nation got the green light on June 13 to move forward with immediate development of a $350 million commercial casino in Jefferson County, Arkansas — “a showcase of a resort that will supercharge the region’s economy and excite the people of Arkansas,” said Quapaw Nation Chairman John Berrey.
The Tribe submitted the lone proposal to operate a casino in Jefferson County. Meanwhile, five proposals for Pope County were denied at Thursday’s highly anticipated Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC) meeting.
For the Quapaw Nation, the approval marks a homecoming. The Tribe has mapped out 345 acres for the property in Pine Bluff, a city in Jefferson County where Quapaw Chief Saracen was laid to rest in 1832 at age 97. Named in his honor, Saracen Casino Resort recognizes the Tribe’s ancestral roots in Arkansas, prior to forced removal to Oklahoma in the 1830s.
The Tribal entity Saracen Development, LLC, projects that construction of the resort will create about 1,000 immediate jobs that will last about 11 months. Shortly before opening in spring 2020, Saracen Casino Resort will hire about 1,100 permanent employees.
“We view ourselves as community developers. That means we develop a commercial enterprise for the right reasons — for the betterment of communities and their citizens,” Chairman Berrey said. “I believe the people of Pine Bluff are already seeing that. They understand this is where we came from; this is a homecoming for us.”
The gaming license was awarded to Saracen Development, LLC, a subsidiary of Downstream Development, owned by the Quapaw Nation. Downstream Development also operates and manages Downstream Casino Resort, a destination gaming resort located in northeast Oklahoma at the three-corner border of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
Pope County Bids Denied
Also at the ARC vote on June 13, the seven-person committee rejected five bids submitted for the single gaming license for Pope County, Arkansas. Among those applicants was Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB). All bids were denied on the grounds that no proposals contained letters of recommendations from current, local city officials or the county judge.
Thursday’s news came on the heels of a media release by CNB officials, who on Tuesday, June 11, announced CNB’s partnership with Legends, a hospitality company backed by the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, to manage the design and other elements of CNB’s proposed casino for Russellville in Pope County. Legends was founded in 2008 by Arkansas native and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the late George Steinbrenner, former owner of the New York Yankees.
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While the ARC denied the five proposals, the regulatory panel approved a motion to reopen the review process for a Pope County casino over the next 90 days, if that proposal includes a letter of recommendation from local and county officials, reported Talk Business & Politics.
