Revised Boulder Highway casino OK’d

Valerie Miller

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 1:31 a.m.

HENDERSON -- A revised plan for a new hotel-casino on Boulder Highway was approved Thursday by the Planning Commission.

Providing that the City Council approves the plan, the first phase of P.T.'s Mining Hotel and Casino would be constructed on Boulder Highway and consist of 71 rooms. Developers plan to appear before the Planning Commission at a later date to request a second phase that would add 129 rooms, bringing the total number to 200.

Concerns about the design led planning commissioners to table the issue two weeks ago.

"I was concerned when they (the developers) were asking for a 200-room hotel, because I felt that it was too intense a use," said Commission Chairman Danny Sanders. "What they are doing now -- the 71 rooms for phase one -- is not as intense."

Commissioner George Bochanis also agreed that the time is right to give the project the go ahead. The project was first proposed in 1986 and its scope has changed considerably over the years.

"We did the right thing this time by approving this," Bochanis said. "The applicant was very accommodating (to the conditions set forth by the commission)."

The hotel-casino is planned to eventually encompass 89,887 square feet, with 49,747 square feet to be developed in the initial phase. The main hotel building will be three stories tall. The address is 900 S. Boulder Highway, which is south of Palo Verde Drive and between Boulder Highway and Sausalito Drive.

Construction has already begun on a 680-foot-long wall that will serve as a buffer to shield nearby residents form noise and debris from the hotel and casino and an existing shopping center.

One of the largest property owners in the area, resident Evelyne Sacco, spoke in favor of the project.

"Down the street we have a shopping center, and we have to deal with grease spills and trash pick-ups at 4 a.m.," she explained. "This wall should stop that, and stop the dust, too. This (project) is great."

As part of the plan, Bochanis said, the developers must plant trees on the neighborhood's side of the wall.

Thomas Boeckle, who owns the property on which P.T.'s will be built, said he is pleased by the outcome of the meeting.

"I don't have any problem complying with the Planning Commission's conditions," Boeckle said.

"I think this (hotel and casino) will help some of the tourist trade from Arizona and locals with affordable food prices," he said, adding that he hopes the project can be open by New Year's Eve.