Louisville Business First – Project of the Year: Derby City Gaming
By Joel Stinnett ([email protected])
Featured in Louisville Business First, May 17-23, 2024, Vol. 40, No. 43
When Churchill Downs Incorporated built its new $90 million Downtown gaming venue the Louisville-based company broke the bank – literally.
The 43,000-square-foot facility that opened December 6 was constructed in the building formerly home to U.S. Bank’s Downtown offices, which was stripped of its drywall, glass, electrical and plumbing before being rebuilt into what is now Derby City Gaming Downtown.
The venue features 500 historical racing machines (HRMs) across two levels decorated with touches from Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby. Guests are greeted by a gift shop, Derby City Gaming Downtown’s Race & Sports Book and the First Turn Sports Bar & Lounge on the first floor.
Two more bar concepts – Fascinator Wine Bar and Trophy Bar Bourbon and Cigars – are on the lower level along with more HRMs and two outdoor, yet enclosed, lounges where smoking is allowed.
Derby City Gaming Downtown, at the corner of Market and Fourth streets, has 130 on-site guest parking spaces on the upper level of the property.
Outside, the building is adorned with dozens of rose panels, a nod to the garland of roses awarded each year to the winner of the Derby, while a 1.5 million 90-degree, wraparound 3D video board with state-of-the-art LED display hangs atop the facility promoting its hospitality offerings.
“It’s not a typical building that you see here in Louisville,” said Joe Mudd, senior project executive at Messer Construction Co., the contractor for the project. “Certain building components really stand out on this one. The 3D video board that’s on the outside, there’s nothing like it here in town. There’s very, very few in this country. On the inside, some of the specialty finishes they have, whether it’s the decorative light fixtures, the horseshoe light, the rose fixtures, the fit-out of the three different restaurant areas…”
“The culmination of all of these different aspects makes this job stand out and be special.”
For those reasons and more, Derby City Gaming Downtown was chosen as Louisville Business Firsts Commercial Real Estate Project of the Year for 2024 (completed in 2023).
But construction of this world-class gaming venue in the middle of a busy urban area faced some long odds before it crossed the finish line.
“Working in the Downtown environment, making sure we’re keeping everybody safe, we’re not interrupting traffic flow or pedestrian flow, we’re keeping the businesses around us operational, keeping them abreast of where we’re going, that always proves to be a challenge on these types of jobs,” Mudd says.
And they’re off
Derby City Gaming opened 150 days before Mystik Dan won the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby by a nose, but by then the project had been in the works for more than 2 years.
“I do think the Downtown decision was intentional. I think Churchill wanted to be part of the revitalization of Downtown,” Derby City Gaming General Manager Garth Williams said. “This is Churchill’s contribution to enhancing the experience Downtown, not only for the locals but for tourists as well.”
But building Downton has its challenges. For example, you can’t exactly put a construction trailer in the middle of Market Street.
That’s why Messer rented an office above In Season Harvest Kitchen nearby on Main Street, where contractors and Churchill Downs officials could plan and communicate with one another.
Once the building was stripped to its bones, the first hurdle was making sure a former bank could support 500 gaming machines and hundreds of guests.
Workers had to build a structural steel frame to support the first floor, Mudd said, while installing more than 200 feet of 12-inch-thick concrete walls that run from the foundation to the three-floor parking garage above the gaming floor to brace the building. Additional reinforcement was used around openings that had to be cut in the structure for new elevators and escalators.
“The building was in good shape. But we did have to update it to meet code and do a couple things to increase its capacity,” Mudd said. “If you had to tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up in that environment, in that type of closed in space, it wouldn’t have been cost-effective. Even the modifications that we had to make were still a cheaper alternative.”
Another challenge was creating the smoking lounges on the lower level which had to have outdoor airflow. The bank building had an outdoor patio with a sloped retaining wall that rose up to Market Street and Fourth Street. But the area didn’t have enough floor space for the 100 HRMs Churchill Downs wanted to put there.
To solve that, workers used six-foot-tall pieces of timber to hold up the street above as they dug down to remove dirt and then the 450-foot retaining wall. They then poured a new concrete vertical retaining wall, allowing gamers the room to gamble while smoking.
“We were able to maximize the outdoor space not only for the smoking/gaming patio, but also the cigar patio,” Williams said.
Moving games or bringing in new games over time was the next hurdle for the team, as the hundreds of miles of wires and cables necessary to run the HRMs make moving them difficult.
That’s why workers installed a second floor above the original floor. The raised floor features removable tiles and sits about four inches higher than the original, allowing wires to be ran through the gap and across the building. That way when officials want to change the floorplan, the don’t have to worry about where to put the wires.
“That’s the future of gaming design,” Williams said. “It allows us to be more flexible as technology changes and games get taller, bigger, wider, more impressive, you want to move them around and merchandise them. Having a raised floor allows you to move them and move data without having to blast through concrete or tear out drywall.”
Construction generated 450 jobs over the course of the project, while the venue employs more than 150 people.
The general contractor on the project was Messer Construction, while the architect was Westar Architectural Group/Nevada Inc. CMTA served as mechanical and electrical engineer. JPS Consulting Engineers LLC was the structural engineer, and the civil engineer was Qk4.
Williams said his favorite aspect of the building is the Fascinator Bar, which offers visitors and upscale lounge to sit and drink while taking a break from gaming, and the ample employee-only spaces for workers to take breaks.
For now, Derby City Gaming only offers HRMs, which are similar to slot machines, though they’re technically based on historical racing results.
But Williams said that if Kentucky legislatures ever pass a law to allow slot machines and table games, Churchill Downs, and the raised floor, will be poised.
“It’s fair to say, if the law were to change, we are ready to mobilize,” Williams said.
Project Key Players
Owner/developer: Churchill Downs Incorporated
Project Manager: Christian Pendleton (CDI)
General Contractor: Messer Construction
Architect: Westar Architectural Group/Nevada Inc.
Engineers: CMTA (mechanical, electrical, plumbing); JPS Consulting Engineers Inc. LLC (structural); Qk4 (civil)
Site work: EZ Construction; RAM Engineering; Messer; Hussung Mechanical; Excel Services
General Manager: Garth Williams
