SugarHouse breaks ground on $164M expansion

SugarHouse Casino is set to break ground Tuesday on the property’s $164 million expansion, a move that the casino officials expect will generate hundreds of permanent jobs and millions in economic impact. (For renderings, see the accompanying photo gallery.)

The groundbreaking at 10 a.m., will take place at the expansion's future home on the north side of the casino. The SugarHouse executive team, city officials and community leaders will be present.

"This is a game changer," said Wendy Hamilton, general manager, "When we opened, it was a long road from getting a license to opening our doors."

Hamilton also said that the expansion will allow the casino to expand beyond a two-dimensional experience, focusing on amenities, such as restaurants, 30,000 square feet of event space and a large poker room.

"There's not a lot of growth in the gaming market," Hamilton said. "So, to compete, we need to be a more amenity-rich experience, giving guests a more well-rounded experience and more things to do."

Furthermore, Hamilton said: "We've increased gaming units by 25 percent, but we've given players more elbow room on the floor. It was designed specifically to address the need for more to do [...] and what players asked for.

The expansion includes a multipurpose event space with a view of the Delaware River, new restaurants, a parking garage and a $2.9 million, dedicated 30-table poker room.

Starting this fall, SugarHouse will open an interim 24-table poker room, which will be open until the permanent poker room opens in 2015.

The permanent poker room, itself, is also projected to generate an estimated $1.8 million in taxes to the city and state, and create 100 jobs (80 of which will be poker dealers).

Jobs and Economic Impact

Once the expansion is complete, approximately 500 permanent full- and part-time jobs will be generated, in addition to the 1,600 construction jobs generated throughout the expansion process.

Furthermore, the new facility will also result in an annual contribution of $1 million to the Penn Treaty Special Services District for the economic development in Fishtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal