Hard Rock Casino proposal, Kenosha County board votes to approve
Rendering of proposed Hard Rock Casino
KENOSHA, Wis. - The Kenosha County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a proposal for a Hard Rock Casino. The board's decision came just after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17 in a 10-9 vote.
The land for the proposed casino is on County Highway K off I-94 and would take over an area that is currently farmland. The Menominee tribe would run the casino, and the city of Kenosha would own the land.
The Menominee tribe shared a document associated with the casino proposal with FOX6 News earlier this month. It described a gaming area with 1,500 slot machines and an estimated 50 table games – plus restaurants, bars and more. The proposal also calls for a 150-room Hard Rock Hotel, a Hard Rock Cafe and a Hard Rock Live venue with 2,000 seats.
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The document said the casino project is estimated to cost $360 million and create nearly 1,000 construction jobs over 18 months. It would employ an estimated 1,000 people once open, with average full-time pay around $54,000.
The casino is expected to generate more than 2.4 million annual visits, the document said, with nearly 1.6 million of those coming from out of state. The estimated economic output would be $352 million for Kenosha County and $492 million for the state.
This latest effort to get a casino in Kenosha is not the first. Years ago, a different Hard Rock was proposed to go at the greyhound racetrack site. Scott Walker, who was governor at the time, rejected it at the eleventh hour.