Brief: Station casino work called an eyesore

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 11:56 a.m.

St. Charles Mayor Bob Moeller this week told the Missouri Gaming Commission the unfinished work "is a real eyesore to our city."

The Post-Dispatch newspaper in St. Louis reported Moeller complained Station is spending millions of dollars on other projects in Las Vegas while it has done little work in the last 21 months on its St. Charles expansion, leaving an exposed steel infrastructure.

Station has spent about $180 million on the project and needs another $100 million to complete it.

Moeller and two city councilmen asked the Gaming Commission to pressure Station into completing the project, or at least covering the sides of it.

"The bare and rusting structural steel fronting Interstate 70 is an embarrassment to historic St. Charles," Councilman Rory Riddler told the Commission.

Mel Fisher, the Commission's director, said a corporate official of Station should appear at the next meeting to discuss the problem. The Commission, meantime, voted to renew the license for one of Station's dual casinos in St. Charles.

Scott Nielson, Station general counsel, later said Station would evaluate the St. Charles market in about one year and decide whether it makes sense to complete the expansion, the Post-Dispatch reported.