Retailers near Hollywood Casino Columbus say they have to have much more than afternoon or evening gamblers to boost their organizations.

“We have to have some hotels over there,” stated Dayna Sokol, who invested $600,000 to spruce up the Tee Jaye’s Nation Place Restaurant on W. Broad Street across in the casino.

“You come to the casino, there’s nowhere to stay,” said Sokol, Tee Jaye’s president.

Greg Simpson, the manager on the Radio Shack close to the casino entrance off W. Broad, stated a hotel could assist maintain guests in the region.

“They are going to become within the area within the morning or just after hours,” he said. “If they did fantastic, they may well come over and get a Tv.”

The buyers Simpson has seen since October are all from the location, he stated. “It’s all nevertheless local targeted traffic.”

A hotel is planned for the casino web page, said Bob Tenenbaum, the spokesman for Penn National, which opened the casino in October, but there is no timetable for that.

Although it may be too early to identify visitor trends, some area officials and retailers are eager for the spinoff development to happen.

“I’m disappointed regions like Westland (Mall) haven’t shown any improvement but,” said Judy Andrews from the Hilltop Business enterprise Association.

James Schimmer, Franklin County’s economic-development director, said elevated development in the area could trigger an individual to make a hotel, which he named a important to revitalization.

“More men and women stick about with a hotel,” Schimmer stated. “Get that location to be a location as opposed to a three-hour stop by.”

You will discover some bright spots. Sokol mentioned her dinner shift is busier and that she has added ten positions considering that the casino opened. And Chris Haydocy of Haydocy Buick GMC on W. Broad stated small business in his service department is up 20 percent considering the fact that October.

Some recent signs of development close to W. Broad Street and Georgesville Road:

• The plans by U-Haul to invest $3.five million to transform the former Meijer retailer on Georgesville into a rental and self-storage facility.

• An indoor skate park, Flow, moving into a vacant Circuit City shop on W. Broad.

• The acquire of your West Broad Plaza shopping center at Broad and Georgesville by Hollywood Retail Ventures for $3.2 million, a deal that closed on Dec. 18.

The new owner said he had planned to invest inside the region just before the casino.

“We thought the West Side was on an uptick,” mentioned Tom Heilman, a principal in Hollywood Retail Ventures.Heilman, who also owns the Lincoln Village Shopping Center on the other side of I-270, said he plans to devote $500,000 to fix up West Broad Plaza and hopes to attract a number of the 2,000 casino workers to its businesses.

“We just consider that corner is going to be dynamic,” Heilman stated. The casino, he stated, could be the “icing on the cake.”

The U-Haul project has nothing to perform using the casino and much more to complete with its location near I-70 and I-270, said David Pollock, a principal planner with U-Haul.

Other folks making improvements, for example Bobby Layman Chevrolet, had planned them whether or not the casino opened or not. Schimmer referred to as those improvements “organic growth.”

“What the casino has performed is solidified people’s investment strategies moving forward,” he said.

A single disappointment, Schimmer stated, was the announcement of two planned outlet malls in Delaware County. He said that hurts chances for improving retail near the casino.

Nonetheless, development plans, market place studies and also the $11.1 million state project to enhance and beautify W. Broad Street amongst I-270 and Wilson Road are excellent signs, he said.

“We seem to have a grander vision available than the private sector is willing to support – for now,” Schimmer stated. “This continues to be a tricky neighborhood. Men and women have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.”

Simpson, the Radio Shack manager, hopes to profit from that casino business someday.

“Right now, we do not have that foot targeted traffic,” he stated. “They appear around the neighborhood, there’s absolutely nothing there. They climb in the car and go home.”

There is certainly additional automobile traffic within the location together with the casino.

A traffic count on Georgesville Road close to the casino on Oct. 25, a Thursday, identified 21,300 vehicles over a 24-hour period, based on the Mid-Ohio Regional Preparing Commission. That compares with 18,000 through a weekday in 2010.

The casino has been averaging close to 10,000 individuals each day considering the fact that it opened on Oct. 8, spokesman Tenenbaum mentioned.