Station Casinos Unveils Plan for KC

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The company on Monday said the 730,000-square-foot complex now under construction will have movie theaters, a children's play area, a 1,400-seat arena, a microbrewery and more, to go with its gaming.

The complex on the Missouri River is expected to open by year's end, pending approval by the Missouri Gaming Commission.

Gambling will take place aboard two permanently docked riverboat barges, the King and the Queen. The 140,000-square-foot gaming floor will have 3,000 slots and electronic gaming machines and 180 table games.

Together, the twin boats will rank as the third-largest casino gaming floor in the United States. The largest, Foxwoods, is operated by a Connecticut Indian tribe and offers nearly 250,000 square feet of gaming. It is followed by the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, at 171,000 square feet. Donald Trump's 139,000-square-foot Taj Mahal in Atlantic City would rank fourth behind Kansas City's Station Casino.

The Kansas City area's largest existing casino is Harrah's twin-boat facility in North Kansas City, with 62,000 square feet of gaming.

Eating establishments will include the first-ever franchise operation by Arthur Bryant barbecue of Kansas City. Other dining places will feature Chinese, Southwestern-Mexican, Italian, German and classic American cuisine plus an international Feast around the World buffet.

Winding cobblestone streets will take visitors through a Victorian-era setting of storefronts and gas lanterns - all under a hand-painted ceiling of blue sky and clouds.

Hand-painted, gold-leaf plaster friezes, ironwork and 25,000 pounds of stained glass are to adorn the casino rooms.

With 2,500 employees, including 1,000 still to be hired, Station estimates it will generate $54 million in annual state and local taxes.

Station Casinos was founded in Las Vegas 20 years by Frank Fertitta Jr. The company now operates three Las Vegas casinos and a fourth is under construction. All four feature elements of Kansas City Station, including theaters and child care.

In 1985 Fertitta was linked to a Las Vegas casino profits skimming case that eventually sent nine Midwest mobsters to federal prison. The case was tried in Kansas City.

Fertitta was one of several Las Vegas figures not charged in that case but identified in court as participants in a mob-directed Las Vegas skimming operation.

Fertitta is the father of Frank Fertitta III, who now heads the company.

Station Casinos already operates a riverboat in St. Charles. Tom Irwin, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, said at the time the company was being licensed for its St. Charles project that state officials were satisfied the elder Fertitta was no longer "a director, officer or a beneficial owner in that company."

Station Casinos has operated almost blemish-free in Nevada for two decades, state officials there said Monday.