Norfolk Casino Groundbreaking Comes Almost Four Years After Authorization

Posted on: October 16, 2024, 10:15h. 

Last updated on: October 16, 2024, 10:27h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

The Norfolk casino resort project from Boyd Gaming in partnership with Virginia’s Pamunkey Indian Tribe will break ground at the end of the month.

Norfolk casino Boyd Gaming Pamunkey Indian Tribe
Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe will break ground on their resort casino in Virginia’s Norfolk on Oct. 30, 2024. The groundbreaking comes nearly four years after city voters authorized the commercial casino. (Image: Boyd Gaming)

Following the Norfolk City Council’s greenlighting of the more than $500 million undertaking, the developers say they’ll break ground on the entertainment destination on Wednesday, October 30. The ceremonial first digging of dirt will be attended by Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith, Pamunkey Chief Robert Gray, and Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander.

The yet-to-be-named Norfolk resort will include a 200-room hotel and a casino floor with 1,500 slot machines, 50 live dealer table games, and a sportsbook. The blueprint’s latest revision features eight restaurants and bars, 13K square feet of meeting and event space, a full-service spa, a fitness center, and a 1,300-space parking garage.

The complex will be built on roughly six acres that the developers will purchase from the city for $10 million.

Norfolk voters authorized a casino along the Elizabeth River adjacent to the city’s Harbor Park Minor League Baseball stadium during the November 2020 election. The local referendum fielded 65% support.

Temporary Casino

Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, the latter Norfolk’s longtime gaming partner, will first open a temporary casino with a few hundred slots and a handful of table games.

The developers must commence casino gambling on the site by November 2025. That’s because Virginia’s 2020 commercial gaming bill that qualified select cities to ask residents to authorize casinos mandates that gaming begin where local referendums field adequate support within five years of approval.

Boyd plans to construct the temporary casino beginning in February 2025 and open the facility by mid-October. Construction on the permanent resort is to begin in mid-January 2025 and be ready sometime in 2027.

Norfolk’s long-delayed casino is finally being expedited upon Boyd’s arrival. In September, Boyd became the Pamunkey’s development partner after the Las Vegas-based regional gaming giant bought out billionaire Jon Yarbrough’s stake in the project.

Before the 2020 gaming bill passed in the state legislature, Yarbrough was partnered with the Pamunkeys on a tribal casino roughly 60 miles north of Norfolk on the tribe’s sovereign land in King William County.

Norfolk opted to partner with the tribe for its commercial casino to thwart competition the tribal casino might have created. Norfolk voters ratified their casino opportunity in November 2020, with the Pamunkeys and Yarbrough, operating jointly as Golden Eagle Consulting II, LLC, designated as the city’s preferred gaming developer.

The tribe and Yarbrough encountered numerous challenges in getting their Norfolk casino scheme called HeadWaters Resort & Casino across the approval finish line. Yarbrough, who amassed his riches by founding a leading manufacturer of tribal gaming machines, ultimately folded on the undertaking and sold his 80% stake in Golden Eagle to Boyd.

Name Possibilities 

Upon Boyd’s arrival, the Norfolk gaming project’s longtime identity, HeadWaters, was sunk. Boyd reps say they’ll soon announce what the forthcoming property will be called.

Unlike its primary competitor — Penn Entertainment and its Hollywood casino brand — Boyd doesn’t have a dominant brand it uses for its regional properties. The only brand Boyd uses in multiple states is Sam’s Town in Nevada, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Sam’s Town Virginia or Norfolk is unlikely, at best.

It’s likelier that Boyd and the Pamunkeys will settle on a name that resonates with the Hampton Roads region, and possibly recognizes Norfolk’s rich history, including its vast waterways and Naval operations.