Lawrenceburg rebuilds: gaming revenues bring improvements to downtown.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: REGIONAL REPORT: SOUTHEAST

FOUR MILLION VISITORS a year take their chances at Lawrenceburg's Argosy Casino. Another 250,000, equally daring, ski the nearby Perfect North Slopes.

The dollars they spend---and the millions in direct annual payments from Argosy Casino--are rebuilding the community nicknamed Whiskey City during the years it housed multiple distilleries. With a new Argosy Casino set to open in mid-2009 that will nearly double its gaming space, the city's moniker may become Playground Capital of Indiana.

A new Argosy. The new $310 million moored riverboat is under construction, with two 507-foot hulls now being joined in a newly created harbor on the Ohio River, 25 miles downstream from Cincinnati. It will have 4,200 gaming positions on one floor, replacing the 2,500 spaces on three floors in today's 11-year-old casino.

"We'll have 125,000 square feet--the size of a Wal-Mart--and a much larger poker room with space for 30 tables during tournaments," says Larry Kinser, Argosy general manager and vice president. Today's river boat decor will be replaced by an around-the-world theme so guests "can visit lots and lots of destinations." The casino itself will be decorated in a seaside theme.

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Argosy will be adding 200 workers to today's staff of 1,992.

Even before the new facility opens, visitor numbers could jump with this spring's opening of a 1,500-space parking garage and 300-foot moving walkway to the pavilion.

"We think a new product in the market will be good for us short- and long-term," Kinser says. And it's likely to be good for Lawrenceburg, too.

Lawrenceburg benefits. So far, Argosy's annual cash thank-yous to Lawrenceburg since the casino opened in 1996 have funded at least 25 major community projects, from new streets to sidewalks, sewer lines, a fire station, electric substations, parks, a medical center, a college building and spruce-ups all around downtown.

"This place is jumping," city manager Tom Steidel says of the town that covers just five square miles. "When I came here five years ago, there was virtually no one downtown. Now, downtown is about halfway where we want to be. You don't desert a village like this overnight, and you don't repopulate it over night. We still have some empty storefronts to fill."

Thanks to Argosy's millions, downtown improvements for the Dearborn County seat include a $23 million, three-story Ivy Tech branch opened in 2007 that serves about 650 students; an adjacent 800-car parking garage...