Planning to expand

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| Monday, December 20, 2004 11:50 PM CST | () comments

Tom Saul

Brian Bettina wanted to know why the Isle of Capri wants to build its new Rhythm City hotel and casino complex on Davenport's riverfront when Iowa gaming laws were changed to allow them to move off the water.

Nancy Donovan, regional vice president for the company, said it wouldn't make economic sense to move far from the Rhythm City riverboat casino's current location.

Monday was the casino officials' first eye-to-eye meeting with citizens on a proposed 10-story, 180-room hotel and five-story parking ramp on a site about a block east of the current Rhythm City location, and many brought hard questions and skepticism that the city and taxpayers ultimately will benefit much from the plan.

Kevin Kunkel asked why Isle officials think the estimated 2.1 million additional visitors expected at the new complex in the first 10 years it is open will use other amenities in the downtown when the object is to keep them on the boat and gambling.

Visitors spend an average of about two hours gambling before they go looking for other things to do, Donovan said. Isle officials want to offer package trips that will allow customers to visit other attractions downtown.

Steven Newhard wanted to know whether the company would be willing to build a removable flood wall between its complex and John O'Donnell Stadium to keep the downtown riverfront free of flooding.

Greg Lundgren, president of Ryan Companies US in Davenport, which will be asked to build the complex, said that was outside the scope of the project. Flood protection would be built on the east end of the complex only to protect it and to allow gamblers to get in and out during periods of high water.

Dale Barbour spoke for several of 120-plus people who attended Monday's meeting, the first of two to unveil the plans, when he questioned assumptions by Isle officials about benefits city taxpayers and downtown businesses and attractions would get from the complex.

"This is being crammed down our throats," Barbour said. "To propose this as though it is a done deal is the wrong thing to say to the people in this room. Everything you've proposed tonight is in the best interest of the casino."

Up until Monday night's meeting, the public has been excluded from having a say in plans for the complex, said Jan Banaszek. The riverfront should remain open. A new hotel and the riverboat could go virtually anywhere.

"You have excluded the public," Banaszek said. "We finally have a chance to keep the riverfront open and now you want to put in a hotel. You should go to the public before you make up your mind on these kinds of things."

Karl Rhomberg, a member of the city's Levee Improvement Commission, said the issue for most who showed up for the unveiling was that decisions that affect the public and public property should be made out in the open.

"It has been difficult if not impossible to obtain information about any of this," Rhomberg said. "It seems to have been an insider conversation up to this point and we can either like or lump it. We don't even get the chance to say leave it."

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com