Bristol Casino group submits demo plan for former mall site
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BRISTOL, Va. — The Bristol Casino is one step closer to its construction dreams — starting with a demolition plan at the former Bristol Mall site.
“We have submitted a demolition plan to the city,” an emailed statement sent by The United Company’s media contact, Andy Poarch, said. “This plan relates to preliminary site evaluation work at the Mall that we need to complete before finalizing our design for the temporary casino.
“We continue to work closely with the Virginia Lottery on next steps for construction of the temporary gaming facility, and planning for the permanent one,” the statement continued. “We appreciate the ongoing cooperation and assistance from local and state officials for all necessary permitting and licensing requirements.”
The project includes transforming the 500,000-square-foot former mall into a casino and building two hotel towers on the site. The goal is to open the temporary casino by the end of the first quarter in 2022, The United Company President Martin Kent told the Times News in October. And in the following year and a half to two years, the entire project is slated for completion.
The final facility will offer a casino with 2,700 slots and 100 table games, multiple restaurants and bars, an outdoor concert venue, convention space and multiple shops. The project will cost more than $300 million. The resort is also slated to offer approximately 2,000 direct, permanent jobs and several thousand indirect and induced jobs, Kent said. The project will also offer more than 1,000 construction jobs.
In 2020, the General Assembly and Gov. Ralph Northam passed the casino bill allowing commercial casino gaming in Virginia. Bristol businessmen Jim McGlothlin and Clyde Stacey dreamed of turning the old Bristol Mall on the Gate City Highway in Bristol, Virginia, into the region’s first casino in the commonwealth and announced their goals in 2018. After the new bill was passed, the project also required approval of taxpayers — which it received by more than 70% of the vote last year.
For updates and more information on the the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Bristol, go to https://www.hardrockhotelcasinobristol.com/.
