Casino planned for long-vacant building

One of the large - and empty commercial buildings in Carson City will be occupied soon.

Casino Fandango, owned and operated by gaming veteran Larry Woolf, will open on Aug.

1 in what was once the longvacant Supply One building on Highway 395 at the south end of town.

The building has been vacant since December 2000.

Woolf is chairman and CEO of The Navegante Group, a gaming development and management company based in Las Vegas that helped launch, among others, the 100,000-square-foot Casino Niagra in Ontario, Canada, that was designed and built in 180 days and the cost of which was recouped by the government 180 days later.

"It was one of the most successful," casino start-ups, said Woolf.

"We bid against 27 other companies and won it."

Now,Woolf is looking to do the same in Carson City, but on a smaller scale and more personal level.

He is the owner of Casino Fandango and is personally financing the first phase of the 44,000-squarefoot casino's construction.

The first phase covers the initial 12,000 square feet of the building and will include a bar, 24-hour delicatessen, bathrooms, 175 multi-denominational slot machines, and three blackjack tables, as well as 300 parking spaces adjacent to the building.

The slots will be a combination of machines made by International Game Technology and Bally, using ticket-in, ticket-out technology that enables them to take everything from pennies to dollars.

Woolf is very familiar with the technology.

"When I opened the MGM we had an IT guy who developed and had a patent on ticket-in, ticket-out technology," said Woolf, referring to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

"We bought the patent from him and slot makers retrofitted the slots for us.

Then IGT bought the patent from the MGM."

The cost of Casino Fandango's initial construction is expected to be about $6 million.

The casino is looking to hire 88 employees and is giving preferential treatment to Carson City residents, said Woolf.

Payroll costs are expected to hit about $2.7 million.

The second phase will expand into the remaining space.

That includes a total of 600 slots and 10 to 12 gaming tables, a sports book, stage and dance floor, decorative pool and large, 24-hour buffet and coffee shop.

The expansion is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, if Woolf can line up the necessary financing.

"We're looking to a bank and we're pretty comfortable we'll get it," he said.

Failing that,Woolf said the casino can expand more gradually and be financed through cash flow generated by the working part of the casino.

To operate the expanded casino,Woolf is expecting to increase the employee count to 250.

The architect for the project is Peter Wilday, who designed both the Peppermill and Atlantis casinos in Reno.

He is designing the exterior of the building as well as the interior, which will have a tropical theme and many special effects.

Columns, for example, will look like banana trees while birds and fish - animated ones - will fly and swim on a track running along the ceiling.

Thunderstorms and lightening - more special effects - will periodically hit the pool, signaling double jackpot payouts on the slots.

The casino logo will include a fish that Woolf had suggested they call Nemo, but he was told the name's already been taken.

So Woolf is considering a local radio contest to name the fish and other animal mascots as a way to promote the casino to locals.

Woolf is counting on a locals crowd and thinks Carson City is the ideal spot.

He also looked in Reno, Gardnerville and Tonopah, but decided on Carson City.

"Carson is very user friendly and growth oriented," said Woolf.

"Carson deserves a fun, festive place.

And I'd rather invest here than in Reno or Las Vegas where it's immune to Indian gaming." Woolf zeroed in on the Supply One building after considering two or three other locations in the town, despite at least one major drawback to the property.

One reason the building stood vacant was limited access.

Cars can enter from Highway 395 both south and north, but the turn lane coming from the north is short.

And visitors only can turn right, heading south, when they exit.

So Woolf said the stacking lane where cars wait to take a left turn into the property will be lengthened to hold six or seven cars.

Then the casino will build a road that runs from Highway 395 to Curry Street, behind the casino, once the city lowers Curry, which it has promised to do.

That will allow visitors to take 395 southward and Curry northward.

City officials are being accommodating, says Woolf.

If all goes as planned, the casino expects in the first year of operations to pay about $12 million in gaming, sales, payroll and purchased services taxes.