Construction of the new $360 million Hollywood Casino-Aurora resort is progressing on schedule and within budget, Aurora officials announced on Thursday.
The new location of the city’s Hollywood Casino, along Farnsworth Avenue and Bilter Road, across the street from Chicago Premium Outlets mall and near the Interstate 88 interchange, is set to replace the casino currently in downtown Aurora. It is expected to have 1,200 gaming positions, about 220 hotel rooms, a retail sportsbook, an outdoor entertainment area, many bars and restaurants, a full-service spa and a roughly 12,000-square-foot event center with meeting areas, according to past reporting.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who spoke Thursday at the construction site as part of a city update on the project, said the casino resort is a “game-changer” for Aurora. The site, which is part of the city’s newly announced APEX District, will contain the city’s first four-star hotel, the largest structure built in the city in over 50 years, he said.
The casino resort’s restaurants will be partnering with “some of the most fantastic regional chefs” as well as a chef that is “world famous,” according to Greg Moore, vice president and general manager of Hollywood Casino-Aurora. He said that some “insights” into the chefs’ identities could be announced within the next 90 days.
The plan is to have the casino open in the first half of 2026, Moore said, which is a time frame that has not changed since a previous update on the project at the end of December.
He said on Thursday that, in his opinion, the opening day “cannot come fast enough.”
At this point, the site’s 1,000-car parking garage has been fully built and around three-fourths of the windows have been installed on the hotel, which has been built up to its full seven-story height, according to city officials.
The project has used 1,700 tons of steel on the casino and hotel building, installed 774 precast panels for the parking garage, used over 1 million feet of electrical conduit throughout the project and will use 836 window panes for the hotel, of which 645 had been installed as of Thursday, Kenneth Campbell, who works in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development and is the city’s project manager for the new Hollywood Casino-Aurora development, said at the update event.
Since construction began in November 2023, the casino project has also successfully passed 628 inspections, according to Aurora Chief Development Services Officer John Curley. He said those inspections have primarily been for the buildings’ foundations, electrical work and plumbing.
Curley thanked Penn Entertainment, which owns the Hollywood Casino brand, and POWER Construction, which is the project’s main construction contractor, for working with many local subcontractors on the project and for spending nearly $80,000 within Aurora on other expenses.
“I really want to thank all of the team members for running such a smooth job and helping our local economy in the way that they have so conscientiously,” he said.
Hollywood Casino-Aurora has previously held both job and vendor fares for its new location, and another job fair is coming up in March, according to Moore. He said that anyone interested in becoming a dealer should attend, and that the company offers a free dealer school.
The casino already has over 400 staff members but is looking to have around 800 at the time of opening, Moore said.
Another progress report on the project should be shared next quarter, officials said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
