Tutor Perini Corp. of Los Angeles, a civil, building and specialty construction company, announced Tuesday that its subsidiary, Roy Anderson Corp., has been awarded a $200 million contract to add a new casino complex and hotel at Southland Gaming and Racing Park in West Memphis.
The contract was awarded by Southland owner Delaware North of Buffalo, New York. The project includes a 20-story, 300-room hotel. The 240,000-SF casino complex includes a larger buffet and steakhouse restaurants, a new food hall, a coffee shop and a player lounge.
In a news release, Tutor said work on the project would begin “immediately,” with “substantial completion” expected in January 2021.
Southland officially announced expansion plans last fall after Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling at Southland, Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and two other sites in Jefferson and Pope counties.
Southland, which opened in 1956 as a greyhound racetrack, aims to create “the Mid-South region’s premier casino.” The expansion will add as many as 60 live table games and 400 gaming machines to the current 2,000. Lou Jacobs, co-CEO of Delaware North, said in January that the expansion “represents the largest ever investment in a casino in Arkansas and one of the largest for a hospitality project.”
Oaklawn, a 114-year-old thoroughbred track that is already the state’s top visitor draw, announced a $100 million casino-and-hotel expansion on Nov. 19. It said casino gaming will be “another amenity” to bolster racing.
Also Tuesday, Warner Gaming, a hospitality and entertainment company, said it has teamed up with the Hard Rock brand to propose a new resort and casino for Pope County. The partnership plans to file its application with the Arkansas Racing Commission in May, which will include more details of the project. Voters in Pope County voted against the constitutional amendment to allow gambling.
Publicly traded Tutor Perini (NYSE: TPC) offers diversified general contracting and design-build services to clients around the world.
Sign up for Daily E-news
