I just have a few more minutes of my lunch break left, but I want to pass along some local thoughts I've been having lately of the largest development to happen in Palo Alto County, Iowa.
An Emmetsburg, Iowa non-profit group this summer was awarded a casino license allowing Gary Kirke and his development group Wild Rose Entertainment to build a casino on a man-made pond east of town. This will be the first casino venture for Gary Kirke's development group, who's foundation is in housing and commercial development.
This small community in northwest Iowa had two applications submitted during this rare window of opportunity given by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commissioners (IRGC) to get a casino license. The other was to build a riverboat-style casino on the waters of Five Island Lake by Grace Entertainment, a company that primarily deals in casino management.
The major differences between the two proposals were in management location (Gary Kirke's Wild Rose would be Iowa-based, while Grace Entertainment is Missouri-based), location of casino, investment possibilities (Grace did not plan to offer a local public investment, while Wild Rose did) and architectural style.
Let me address the last two differences. I wondered about the repercussions of a local public investment offering for the casino. The ability to have a casino development was always played up as a way for communities to better develop other businesses and bring more economic developoment to the area. Much of the other development relies heavily on local investors willing to give seed money to those entrepreneurs who need it to develop a solid business plan. If a casino asks of its local citizens to invest, then there is less of that pot for true local business development, and thus local development suffers and the locals will see outsiders planning and developing their community instead of community citizens.
The IRGC-chosen application based their architectural style on an old hotel, the Waverly, that was demolished in the 1950s. This original hotel was prominately placed north of the courthouse square, and was a noted place to rest during its hayday. Photos of this grand hotel show its majestic Victorian presence and popularity in a time when people traveled less than 100 miles a day on a major trip. Later, the Kermore Hotel was built south of the courthouse square, closer to the stables, with the less than ornamental style of its time. The "New Waverly Hotel" at Wild Rose Resort would resemble the grandeur of Emmetsburg's heritage.
The casino side of the Wild Rose Resort would resemble buildings of Emmetsburg's downtown. One downtown retailer has been contacted by Wild Rose to have a second location at Wild Rose Resort, and they have agreed to do so.
This raises a question for me. If many retailers decide to put a second location of their business at the casino, then what is going to happen to the downtown location? What is going to happen to the downtown if all tourists to Wild Rose Resort stay there to shop instead of checking out the downtown? What will happen if and when the retailers find that their downtown location is now unprofitable and close it, so they can put more into their Wild Rose location?
I feel that the IRGC wanted to bring positive economic development back to our community and Palo Alto County, but at what expense to the downtown and current and future businesses? Has our city planners/administrators thought about how they might need to rethink downtown businesses for our community and especially our downtown, to survive? Have they thought about helping to bring local entrepreneurs and businesses that will complement our economy and future casino, while maintaining our downtown and current businesses?
I fear that given a couple of years, Wild Rose Resort and Casino will be the place to be in Palo Alto County, and all development downtown and around Five Island Lake will be to tear down old buildings. I am sure there will be attempts to revitalize both the downtown and the lake area. I can't see the lake becoming the destination of choice with the casino in competition, and the planned new housing developments around the lake for upper upper middle class will lay mostly vacant after a time, because most of the residents in the area will be employed by the casino with adverage to mediocre incomes.
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