Following a groundbreaking ceremony held on November 28 for a new hotel to be tied to the Hollywood Casino Columbus, PENN Entertainment Inc., has revealed that it will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Hollywood Casino Aurora on November 29 at 2:45 pm CT. Additionally, a brand new land-based casino, hotel and entertainment property will substitute for the firm’s riverboat casino, which is located close by, when finished.

Layout of the future hotel-casino:

The regional destination, worth $360 million, is being created near the Chicago Premium Outlets, which lures more than 8 million guests per year, and is strategically cited close to the Interstate 88 in Aurora. The premium property will include approximately 1,200 gaming jobs, a retail sportsbook, roughly 220 guest rooms, a full-service spa, an outdoor entertainment area, premium restaurants and bars, roughly 1,700 parking spaces and roughly 12,000-square-foot event center with meeting rooms.

Furthermore, the firm is projected to produce 700 permanent positions in addition to 700 construction jobs for the fresh property, almost doubling the firm’s current Aurora’s team members. In this regard, the Chairman and CEO of PENN Entertainment, Jay Snowden, commented according to the BusinessWire: “We are thrilled to soon begin construction on a new, state-of-the-art Hollywood Casino Aurora. Our tremendous and long-lasting partnership with the City of Aurora has provided an opportunity to relocate our property to an ideal location that will significantly improve our offerings and further our positive economic impact on the community.”

On a related note, the Aurora project involved moving certain lots from the City of Aurora, and a maximum of $50 million of the development will be financed by the said city via the latest bond issuance. In addition, the transfer onto land was based on a law signed 4 years ago that permitted riverboat casinos to move into land. As for the existing Hollywood Casino Aurora, cited at Fox River in downtown Aurora, it will keep its operations uninterrupted while the aforementioned land-based hotel-casino is under construction, which is projected to last roughly 24 months. Commenting on the new hotel-casino project, Vice President & General Manager of Hollywood Casino Aurora, Greg Moore, commented: “We look forward to celebrating this important milestone with our team members and many key stakeholders that have helped bring us to this point. This is an exciting start to our next chapter, and we cannot wait to welcome residents and visitors of Chicago land to the new Hollywood Casino Aurora when completed.”

Among those invited to the aforementioned groundbreaking ceremony are members of the Illinois General Assembly and the Illinois Gaming Board, the City Council and Mayor, other local shareholders and labor organizations.

Furthermore, this latest hotel project is a piece of a formerly disclosed plan, comprised of 4 newest expansion projects that involve fresh land-based casinos in Joliet, Illinois and Aurora and an extra hotel tower at Henderson, Nevada.  But that’s not all; because Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc., pledged up to $575 million specially for a total budget of $850 million for all 4 expansion projects.

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When it’s time to get your gamble on, or to see great live entertainment, enjoy one of three incredible restaurants, or just get in on the action – Hollywood Casino Aurora has you covered. You will find over 40,000 square feet of gambling space devoted to more than 1,000 slot machines, 21 table games and live poker – and the casino is open almost all night, every night!