PS casino preliminary plans

Public Record, The, Apr 01, 1994 by Hercules, Neil

PALM SPRINGS--Preliminary plans submitted to the city staff to begin the planning process reveal that the new Caesar's World casino will almost double the original planned size of a casino, from 80,000 to 150,000 square feet.

The casino is a joint venture of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in association with Caesar's Palm Springs Management and will be built on an eight-acre site east of the post office parking lot, behind the existing Hilton Hotel.

In an application for a planned development district, encompassing about 21 acres around and on the proposed casino site, some streets will be abandoned, tennis courts on the site and several dilapidated commercial buildings, trees and vegetation on vacant land will be destroyed and graded.

Plans announced earlier call for the casino to be built and ready for operations by January of 1995.

The Indians have told the city that they want the entire project to go through all the necessary planning stages, but they have also told city officials that they will reserve the final rights over their land and what happens to it.

In their initial submittal, the applicants reveal that they will build an 80,000 square foot casino and 40,000 square feet of restaurants, commercial and support facilities.

The second phase calls for a 70,000 square foot expansion of the casino. The casino would be octagonal in shape, with one of the large areas in the center to be devoted to table games. Bingo, speed bingo, keno and race book activities would be situated somewhere near the table game area.

The application also reveals that when in full operation, the casino will employ 2,15 employees in the 24-hour facility. The breakdown is: restaurant--450, bingo--800, keno--50, race book--200, lounges--500 and poker--165.

The application calls for the abandonment of 2,000 linear feet of public streets; this is the one-block section of Arenas Road extending from Indian canon Drive to Calle Encilia. Also called for is the demolition of 250,000 square feet of existing paring lots, tennis courts and tennis pro shop, as well as 10,000 square feet of dilapidated commercial structures.

Land owners listed on the application for the planned development district include Lucille Toro, Barbara Gonzalez-Lyons, Richard Milanovich, Patrick Patencio and Marcus Pete.

The architect is Paul Steelman of Las Vegas and the engineer is Mainero, Smith & Associates of Palm Springs.