New $185 Million Joliet Casino Will Rival Las Vegas, Cullinan Says

JOLIET, IL ? Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy, new city manager Beth Beatty and several members of the Joliet City Council joined up with Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant and State Rep. Natalie Manley for Wednesday's celebratory groundbreaking of Joliet's new $185 million Hollywood Casino. The casino is being built at the Rock Run Collections property that has been in the works for many years at Interstate 55 and Interstate 80, in Troy Township.

Joliet's new Hollywood Casino will replace the existing one along Route 6, that has been around since 1992. The new casino will feature:

• 850 slots
• 44 live table games
• a baccarat room
• a retail sportsbook
• several high quality bars and restaurants
• a 10,000 square foot event center

PENN gaming said the Joliet development will create 450 construction jobs and 515 permanent jobs at the new gaming facility, growing PENN's current employee team in Joliet by 150.

"From our day-one team members to the hundreds of individuals that will be joining us in the months ahead, this is an incredibly exciting milestone for all of us with the property and local community," announced Mike Thoma, vice president and general manager of Hollywood Casino Joliet.

Diane Cullinan, whose company is creating the Rock Run Collections, told everyone gathered Wednesday under the tent that the new Hollywood Casino in Joliet "will rival Las Vegas. He's laughing," she responded. "I'm dead serious."

In 1988, Cullinan founded Cullinan Properties after spending most of the 1980s in the real estate business,

On Wednesday, she told everyone that many years from now, they will tell their children and their grandchildren how they were at the Joliet Hollywood Casino groundbreaking, marking the anchor for her Rock Run Collections development.

In addition to the Hollywood Casino, the Joliet development will include 500,000 square feet of future restaurants and retail, 570 multi-family housing units and 150,000 square feet of future office building space, she pointed out.