On Wednesday, leaders of the future Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady shared a sneak peek inside of the $330 million project at Mohawk Harbor currently under construction.
During a Capital Region Chamber event on Wednesday afternoon, Rush Street’s vice president of operations, Joe Scibetta, unveiled what the casino’s gaming floor and banquet facility will look like upon completion next year, reported?The Daily Gazette and other capital region outlets.
The 50,000 square feet of gaming floor will have 1,150 slot machines, 16 poker tables, and 63 table games. Also included at the casino will be a 10,000-square-foot banquet facility, which will be operated by the Mallozzi Group. Contemporary in style, bright colors are featured in the rendering of the casino’s gaming floor, with yellow walls and multi-colored red carpeting. There will be tables in the center of the room on the gambling floor, with rows of slot machines throughout the rest of the space.
The casino developers said, within the next week or so the facet will go up and the steelwork for the building is close to being completed. The company has plans to make the most of its location along the river on the Mohawk Harbor site of Erie Boulevard. There will be plenty of activities along the riverfront, and the facility will include patios and natural lighting.
The event center will favor Mallozzi’s on Curry Road in Rotterdam. Galesi Group COO David Buicko joined Scibetta at the chamber event where they discussed an update on the casino’s amenities and the project’s progress. The project is a joint venture between Rush Street Gaming and the Galesi Group, which is also being developed by the latter with hotels, housing, retail and office buildings and a 50-boat-slip harbor. The facility will feature a number of restaurants and include Schenectady favorites, Villa Italia Bakery and Johnny’s.
Rush Street says they are working with Proctors to bring entertainment to Rivers. Scibetta?told?cbs6albany,?“We have a deal with Proctors in which we will work with them on our entertainment, but for our lounge we’ll have small acts, little house bands,” he said. “Things like that will come in and play for background music, not meant to be a driver as to why people are coming.”
It is estimated that the project will bring 1,200 permanent jobs and draw 2.8 million visitors annually to the area. Soon job openings will be posted. Future employees will be provided with free training by Rush Street. It is anticipated that the casino will be open by the first quarter of 2017.
Update 3-18 am: In a previous version of this article we mistakenly noted that Rivers Casino would offer?1,500 slot machines, 15 poker tables, and 66 table games. Those numbers have since been corrected.