DENVER? Roughly $6.7 billion in casino development is currently under construction or scheduled to begin in 1999 in the United States, according to a recent study by Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC). The 1999 HREC Annual Casino Development Survey details 14 domestic gaming projects which represent almost 1.2 million square feet of dedicated casino space. These projects will add 13,500 new hotel rooms to a market which already has sagging occupancy due to oversupply in many areas. HREC lists Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada and New Jersey as prime development states, with $2.3 billion in proposed casino development slated for the near future. These projects will mean the addition of 670,000 square feet of gaming space and more than 6,000 new rooms. ?The results of the HREC survey indicate that new casino development is still having a tremendous impact on the nation?s real estate, hospitality and entertainment industries even though the growth of new gaming jurisdictions has slowed in recent years,? said Michael Cahill, president of HREC. ?You?re looking at more than 20,000 total hotel rooms opening nationwide.? A variable in the study is the proliferation of gaming development by Native Americans which, HREC estimates, may significantly increase total development costs outlined in the survey. Because of the inherent difficulty in identifying and quantifying these projects, HREC opted to exclude potential casino development by Native Americans from the survey. Proposed legislation is on the table in California which, if passed, would significantly expand Native American gaming, resulting in more than $1 billion of new casinos or expansion projects within five years of approval, according to HREC. An additional $750 million to $1 billion of Native American casino development could also emerge in states such as Oregon, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas, Cahill said. ?Los Angeles is the main feeder market for Las Vegas. If California does expand its Indian gaming, we expect a fairly significant impact there,? Cahill said. ?But Vegas is so big, with the critical mass they have, I don?t think it will be as as bad as some people are predicting. The other markets won?t have full Vegas style casinos, so the experience won?t be quite the same. And Vegas is really supply driven, so if they increase the capacity, they?ll bring more people in.? HREC also excluded details concerning the impact of three major casinos which opened earlier this year. The Venetian and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV, and the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS accounted for more than $3.1 billion in development costs which, when added to the $6.7 billion already under construction, brings the total figure of nationwide casino development activity to almost $10 billion. Thus far in 1999, according to Portsmouth, NH-based Lodging Econometrics, the research division of National Hotel Realty, eight hotel casinos have opened adding a total of 9,984 hotel rooms to the national supply. Of those, the Mandalay Bay and Venetian account for 3,700 and 3,036 rooms respectively. The other hotel casinos, according to Lodging Econometrics, include the Country Hotel in Lula, MS; the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas; The Isle of Capri in Bossier, MS; the Isle of Capri in Vicksburg, MS and the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno, NV. On the strip in Las Vegas, the highly anticipated Paris and Aladdin hotel projects will cost roughly $760 million and $826 million respectively, adding a total of 5,300 hotel rooms to the market. The Paris hotel and casino, a Park Place Entertainment project, will have 85,000 square feet of gaming space while the Aladdin, an Aladdin project, will add 116,000 square feet. ?Nine of the 14 casino projects under construction or imminent construction have estimated development costs in excess of $400 million per project,? said Andy Sabatini, associate for HREC. The largest casino development under co
