A major expansion at Southland Gaming & Racing in West Memphis will include a 20-story, 300-room luxury hotel and what officials promise will be “the Mid-South region’s premier casino,” a 96,000-SF gaming space with added amenities.
The owner of Southland Gaming & Racing in West Memphis plans a $250 million expansion — including a 96,000-SF casino complex and a 20-story high-rise hotel — in the wake of Arkansas’ vote in November to allow casino gambling.
Southland’s owner, Delaware North of Buffalo, New York, said the “historic” building project will add as many as 60 live table games to the gaming mix and raise the number of gaming machines to 2,400 from the current 2,000. Southland started as a greyhound racing track in 1956 and added wagers on electronic “games of skill” in 2006.
New amenities at the West Memphis complex will include a larger buffet, an expanded steakhouse restaurant, a new food hall and coffee shop, a new player lounge and several added bars.
Construction will begin by summer, and company officials expect the casino complex and parking garage to be finished by summer 2020, and the hotel to be completed about six months after that.
Officials were scheduled to announce the expansion at a 1 p.m. news conference. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is scheduled to attend. In November, Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs announced a $100 million expansion that will include a 200-room high-rise hotel, a 14,000-SF event center and 28,000 SF of new gaming space.
The expansion “represents the largest ever investment in a casino in Arkansas and one of the largest for a hospitality project,” said Delaware North Co-CEO Lou Jacobs. “We have long been committed to Southland, Arkansas and West Memphis, investing more than $100 million in the venue since 2006, and look forward to creating the state’s and Mid-South region’s premier casino.”
The 300-room hotel tower will offer 216 standard rooms, 72 corner suites and 12 penthouse suites. A new covered parking garage will be built with space for 1,250 vehicles.
Southland has some 765 employees now, and the expansion could bring 400 more, officials said. Expansion plans were one part of Southland’s appeal to voters before November’s balloting, in which 54 percent of Arkansans voted for casinos.
The project will also require about 1,500 construction workers. Delaware North, a privately held global hospitality chain, is using private financing for the project, with no public funds.
Southland has a major impact on the region’s economy. With its payroll, operational spending, charitable giving and taxes paid to the state, Crittenden County and the city of West Memphis, the racing and gaming company generates an estimated $144 million annually.
The project comes on top of a Southland expansion in 2013, and Delaware North has more on the drawing board. It hopes to add a major conference and meeting facility “in a future development phase,” the company said in a news release.
In response to the casino vote, Southland plans to open 40 live table games including blackjack, craps and roulette. Sports betting areas are also planned.
“We’ve developed a loyal customer base and can’t wait to see more people discover Southland,” said David Wolf, president and general manager of Southland. He gave praise to the company’s gaming division, headed by Brian Hansberry. “It’s really going to expand our customer reach for new markets in the Mid-South.”
Delaware North, which purchased Southland in the mid-1970s, operates more than 25 lodging properties, including luxury resorts and historic hotels, the release said.
Southland’s attractions include the World Market Buffet, the Bourbon street Steakhouse and the Starting Gate Event Center.
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