By Staci DaSilva
sdasilva@kcautv.com
The Bomgaar's building site downtown could be home to the Hard Rock Hotel. To do so, Milwaukee Weiner would have to be moved a block down.
If the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission chooses MRHD's Hard Rock-themed casino proposal for Woodbury County's new land-based casino, it would include a brand new 60-room hotel owned by the Stoney Creek Inn but it wouldn't go there.
It would be built at the site of the old Bomgaar's Building, directly across from the Stoney Creek Inn and adjacent to the proposed Hard Rock site.
Some think a Hard Rock Hotel moving in here would change the face of this area.
Stoney Creek Inn General Manager Jenn Pavone said, "Brand is amazing. People will travel here from all over just to say they went to Hard Rock Sioux City."
In the plans right now, the casino and the hotel would be connected. So, Pearl Street would be closed from 3rd to 4th Street.
And more big news, Sioux City mainstay Milwaukee Weiner moves a block down 3rd Street.
Two well-known Sioux City locations would get a facelift. The Battery Building becomes the Hard Rock Casino and the Bomgaar's Building would be torn down to become the high-end Hard Rock Hotel.
And jobs will come right along with it, too.
Pavone said, "We'll be adding in increments to our current staff here at Stoney Creek Inn, so we can add all the coverage needed for that top quality service that we'll be providing over at the Hard Rock Hotel. How many is yet to be determined but we are positive we'll be adding team members."
This is all MRHD's proposal partnered with Sioux City Entertainment.
The other 2 downtown casino proposals include hotels as well. There's a new hotel planned in Ho-Chunk Incorporated's casino proposal at the Warrior Hotel and Penn National's 2nd phase includes a hotel at its location north of Gordon Drive and east of Nebraska Street.
Penn National also submitted a plan north of Salix, Iowa. That one includes a hotel as well.
