Hard Rock Casino Rockford officially breaks ground
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ROCKFORD, Ill. -- Rockford's new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is officially under construction.
After months of waiting on approvals, city officials and Hard Rock representatives broke ground in a ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the casino's new permanent location along East State Street close to the entrance of Interstate 90.
13 WREX has been covering this story since Rockford leaders first announced their plan to bring a casino to the region.
Hard Rock has plans to add a 250-room hotel to the resort, and when all is said and done, the hotel and casino will employ 1,200 people.
The excitement surrounding the groundbreaking has been years in the making, never able to be outshone by the iconic Hard Rock guitar seen 100 feet in the air from the highway.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the gaming expansion bill into law in 2019, paving the way for a casino in Rockford. Two months later in October 2019, city leaders voted in favor of a plan from Hard Rock International to submit to the Illinois Gaming Board.
The Rockford Hard Rock Casino is the first project to start construction since the signing of the gaming expansion bill.
A temporary casino campus opened on Nov. 10, 2021 at East State Street and North Bell School Road, and in January 2022, the gaming board voted to grant a license for the permanent casino.
"Its a very extensive construction process, its 300 plus million dollar project, 180 plus thousand square feet. You have a casino, table games, slots, multiple restaurants, Hard Rock live venue. There's a lot of work, there was a lot of work to get to today, so you think ground breaking is really day one but its not, there's months of planning to get to do today," said Geno Iafrate, President of Hard Rock Rockford.
The new project hopes to attract more tourists from across the Stateline and beyond.
John Groh, President and CEO of the Rockford Area Conventions and Visitors Bureau said, "Based on projections visitation should be strong both for the casino and entertainment complex and the future hotel so I think tourism is looking up with the groundbreaking and opening soon of the hotel and casino."
Elected officials highlighted the economic opportunities and growth the casino will bring.
Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said, "When you look at this permanent casino you're going to be talking about 600 to 800 permanent full time jobs with an average wage of 50,000 dollars. Just last week Hard Rock approved more than a 3 dollar increase in minimum wage, voluntarily for all their non-tipped employees it shows they're not just a wonderful community partner they're really working to be one of the best employers in town, we couldn't be more thankful."
The Rockford Hard Rock Hotel will no longer be part of the Phase 1 constructions and will begin after the Casino's construction during Phase 2.
Officials did not provide a date of completion for the project but said the project would be finished sometime in the next three years.
Stay with 13 WREX and wrex.com for additional coverage of the groundbreaking ceremony and continued progress on the project.
