September 9, 2025
Dear editor;
A recent columnist in The Voice got it wrong about incentives given to Hollywood Casino when it came to Aurora in the early 1990s. The writer stated that “Aurora invested a load of money (a gamble) to bring the casino to Aurora.” In fact, the Hollywood Casino received no cash incentives to come to Aurora. I should know since I was mayor of Aurora at the time.
Hollywood Casino approached Aurora with the proposal to build a casino. The casino legislation required a riverboat for a casino and nobody in city hall ever thought such a boat could navigate the Fox River. The casino owners were so eager to be in Aurora that they never asked for any incentives. However, the landowners along the River asked unreasonably high prices to buy land for a docking site. At that point the city offered land that was used as a city parking lot on the north end of Stolp Island for casino construction. The land was given to the casino and the casino was built on that site. The city did donate a little used parking lot that was only accessible through the North Island Center parking lot, but there were no cash incentives for the casino.
In addition to the casino building, the casino built two parking decks. All of these buildings were in the downtown Tax Increment Financing District, but none of the money generated by the TIF went back to the casino. The TIF revenue generated by the casino went to improvements in the downtown.
Based upon previous agreements, when the casino leaves downtown Aurora, the casino will pay for the demolition of the casino building, not the city. In addition the ownership of the parking deck built by the casino at Galena and River will transfer to the city. The parking deck on the south side of the New York Street bridge was paid for by the casino, but is part of North Island Center and was owned by the Aurora Civic Center Authority (ACCA) and leased back to the casino. The city, under the Richard Irvin administration, purchased that parking deck from ACCA for $10,000,000.
The casino has been a good deal for Aurora. It is one of the city’s largest employers and one of the largest taxpayers. In addition to real estate taxes and sales taxes, from 1993 through 2024, the city has collected $315,000,000 in gaming taxes.
Yes, the casino was a risk, but the risk was on the casino not the city. All of this happened without any cash incentives being offered to the casino to bring them to Aurora. This was totally different to the current situation where the Irvin administration gave the casino $50,000,000 to facilitate the move out of downtown to Farnsworth Avenue.
I just want to set the record straight: The City of Aurora has not “invested a load of money … to bring the casino to Aurora.” It was the casino that “invested a load of money” in the project. They wanted to be in Aurora and we worked with them to make it happen.
David L Pierce, Aurora