Casino Resort
HLFI West Baden unsuccessfully marketed the property nationally for over five years before realizing that casino gaming was the key to their success. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana joined with the Cook Group, Boykin Lodging (owner of the French Lick Springs Hotel) and Orange County citizens to lobby the Indiana legislature. The members spent so much time in the capital they were known as "The Orange Shirts" for the color of their t-shirts bearing the slogan, "Save French Lick and West Baden Springs".
Their legislation was finally approved in 2003 and the required local referendum easily passed. The Trump Organization was initially granted the gambling license by the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC), but Trump's subsequent bankruptcy caused the selection process to begin again. The Cook family decided to form a new company, Blue Sky, LLC and submit their own application, before purchasing the French Lick Springs Hotel from Boykin Lodging. Blue Sky was awarded the gambling license during the summer of 2005, and the planning and permitting process for the Casino took off. Construction of the French Lick Resort Casino and renovation of the French Lick Springs Hotel occurred simultaneously in the fall of 2005.
Read more about this topic: West Baden Springs Hotel
Famous quotes containing the word resort:
“Before I finally went into winter quarters in November, I used to resort to the north- east side of Walden, which the sun, reflected from the pitch pine woods and the stony shore, made the fireside of the pond; it is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire. I thus warmed myself by the still glowing embers which the summer, like a departed hunter, had left.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)