Officials frustrated with Station’s St. Charles casino

Christopher Clark

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 12:14 p.m.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Station Casinos Inc. executive told the Missouri Gaming Commission Wednesday that his company has no plans to finish the half-completed expansion of its Casino St. Charles, angering those who say the project is a rusted-out eyesore along Interstate 70.

The company needs about $100 million to complete the three-story complex that is to include restaurants, shops and entertainment. St. Charles officials want it finished, or at least enclosed to improve the view seen by passing motorists.

Earlier this month the St. Charles City Council repeated its request to have the commission pressure Station Casinos to finish the expansion, which it stopped in 1997.

But after hearing Station Casinos Executive Vice President Glenn Christenson refuse to make any commitments Wednesday, the commission took no formal action and offered little more than encouragement for both sides to resolve the issue peacefully.

Christenson said the project's costs, the competitive St. Louis-area gambling market and discouraging forecasts from Wall Street analysts forced the company to indefinitely scrap the expansion.

"The Street would view poorly any further expansion in St. Louis," Christenson said.

Such gloomy reactions to ill-advised construction would irritate stockholders, who are the company's top priority, Christenson said.

Christenson also blamed the state's $500 loss limit, noting Missouri is the only state to legalize gambling with restrictions on how much money a player could lose during a single excursion. The loss limit was part of gambling regulations when Station Casinos of Las Vegas and other companies entered the Missouri market.

Christenson said that if lawmakers lifted the limit, his company would rekindle the expansion.

"Our company would commit to completing the expansion in the St. Charles as soon as possible," he said.

One piece of legislation sponsored this legislative session by Louis Ford, D-St. Louis, calls for lifting the limit though its prospects are uncertain. The bill was referred to the Committee on Miscellaneous Bills and Resolutions.

St. Charles city leaders were visibly frustrated after Christenson's remarks.

"We have tried to be reasonable," Councilman Herman Elmore told commissioners, "but we also want a finished product."

Christenson also appeared reluctant to say whether the company would spend the money necessary to enclose the unfinished work, estimated by some to cost about $5 million.

"There's no return involved in it," he said.

Though seemingly sympathetic to company claims that competition and Wall Street worries had hurt the expansion, commissioners asked why the St. Louis facility sits unfinished while the company's high-profile Kansas City property -- a polished mall of movie theatres, restaurants, gambling halls and a hotel -- appears complete.

"You'd think you were in two different worlds," commissioner Julian Seeherman said."