Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

Underground Atlanta
50 Upper Alabama St. S.W.
Atlanta GA 30303

Sat, 3/14 12 Noon

Festivities kick off with a parade from Ralph McGill Boulevard to Underground Atlanta. Includes Irish-themed cuisine, live entertainment, children's activities and a vendors market.

Labels: 2nd Saturday in May Celebration, march 14, st patricks day festival, underground atlanta

The Atlanta City Council voted Monday to take a gamble in support of a plan to put video lottery machines in Underground Atlanta.

Proponents say the machines would bring about $350 million a year to the region. Dan O’Leary, who runs Underground Atlanta, came to City Hall last month seeking the council’s support for the project, which must ultimately be approved by the Georgia Lottery Board. The board has taken no official position on the plan.

The Underground Atlanta leaseholders’ plan, released in January, calls for a $450 million “video lottery” casino and 29-story hotel. Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote a letter to O’Leary late last year saying she supports the concept.

State law prohibits Las Vegas-style casinos with card games like poker. But the lottery’s charter does not expressly prohibit video lottery terminals. The terminals look like slot machines, but operate like scratch-off tickets that the lottery already sells, such as “Slots of luck” and “Hold ‘em poker.”

Critics argue that states with gambling have had increases in crime, personal bankruptcies and divorce. Supporters counter that half of the proceeds would go to the state’s HOPE scholarship program. The city, O’Leary has said, could collect $3 million a year in taxes from hotel and motel guests, along with increased sales taxes and an undetermined cut of the profits.

Labels: city of atlanta, lottery machines, underground atlanta

Dan O’Leary, normally a mall operator, played pitchman today, giving his first public presentation of his idea to build a casino at Underground Atlanta.

O’Leary and his business partner John Aderhold brought the proposal, first reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, to the executive board of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. O’Leary also brought in what he called his “dream team,” including lawyers and lobbyists from McKenna Long & Aldridge and the president of Dover Downs, a casino and four-star hotel in Delaware. O’Leary has a letter of intent with Dover Downs to operate the proposed casino.

O’Leary told the board, made of hoteliers and other civic leaders, that his proposal will make Underground a “jewel” of downtown.

“We may not even call it Underground Atlanta anymore,” he said. “This is a new deal. It’s 12 acres of property that will become something completely different.”

While the ACVB didn’t have any action in front of them, O’Leary was clearly pleading for their support.

O’Leary’s proposal calls for the Georgia Lottery Board to approve “video lottery terminals” in a casino and hotel at Underground.

The lottery board has not set a date for a decision.

After the meeting, Joe Hindsley, general manager of the Hyatt Regency, one of downtown’s largest hotels, said he wants more details, such as how many visitors the casino will attract, how many nights they’ll be expected to stay, and how much of the expected $600 million in gross revenue, that O’Leary estimates the casino will generate, will trickle down.

“I like the idea we’re combining a demand generator that has been successful in many parts of the country with an area of town that’s had its challenges,” he said. But before endorsing the idea, he said he needs more details.

O’Leary told the board he will need political support for the casino.

“Do we need political support for it? Yes,” he said, noting that more than $200 million annually is spent by Georgians gambling in nearby states.

“There’s gaming in Georgia, folks. We’re just not getting our money,” O’Leary said.

Labels: casino, casinos, developer, underground atlanta