Community Profile: Danville
This building at 618 Craghead St. is being redeveloped into an 88-unit apartment building by Garrett Shifflett and Ross Fickenscher of Richmond-based Aoss Ventures.
Launch point Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment
is investing $400 million to open a mega resort casino with live entertainment, conference space, multiple restaurants and bars and a spa. Projected to open by 2023, it will be located in a former Dan River Mills industrial complex in the city’s Schoolfield area.
The casino is expected to generate at
least $190 million in direct revenue and $51 million in tax revenue annually by 2025, according to Virginia’s Joint Legisla- tive Audit and Review Commission. Caesars has said the project will bring
1,300 jobs to the area. If all goes as planned, it will be a win
for Danville’s tourism industry, says Corrie Bobe, director of economic development for the city. Caesars projects that its resort will generate as many as 2 million visits each year, mostly from tourists coming from neighboring North Carolina and other states.
52 | APRIL 2021
Because of this potential, Danville
city government plans to create a tourism manager position to help maximize expenditures and visitor activity, Bobe says. “My hope is the
casino can really serve as a catalyst for a substantive tourism platform in Danville [and] Pittsylvania County,” says Alexis Ehrhardt, president and CEO of the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce. This kind of diversity is important for
Danville, she says. “There’s a real interest here in not
putting all of the proverbial eggs in one basket,” Ehrhardt says. “We want to attract employers, but I think diversity among our businesses and in our sectors seems to be the goal at this point.”
Businesses throughout the area stand
to benefit as well from increased sales and traffic from the casino. This includes Danville’s River District, which has been on a redevelopment path since 2010 when city leaders traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, to study its downtown as a model for growth. In December 2020, the River District’s
Ehrhardt
first boutique hotel, the Bee, opened inside the former home of the Danville Register & Bee newspaper, founded in 1899 on Patton Street. Also, there are at least 693 condos and
apartments located throughout the River District, mostly in renovated warehouses, says Kelvin Perry, project manager for the city of Danville. That doesn’t include another 88
apartments that will open later this year in a 68,000-square-foot building being redeveloped at 618 Craghead St. by Garrett Shifflett and Ross Fickenscher of Richmond-based Aoss Ventures. Also, a
Photo by Mark Rhodes
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