Mayor of Black Hawk, Colorado: 2010 all about the customer for casinos

In my last column, I invited Central City Mayor Ron Slinger to peer into his crystal ball to predict what his city faces in 2010. This time, I turned the tables to Black Hawk Mayor David Spellman (pictured left).

Spellman, a Black Hawk native who’s been mayor for more than three years, was highly optimistic about his gaming town’s future.

“It will be all about the customer in 2010,” he said.““Properties will be competing much more than in the past because they will be jockeying for new positions for gaming enhancement and Ameristar’s position. There’s no doubt that (Ameristar) has changed the dynamics of our community in a positive way. That, coupled with the (higher stakes) gaming, means we are certainly seeing younger demographics at the table games.”

Like Slinger, Spellman foresees growth in the retail and entertainment sectors in order to offer non-gambling activities to visitors; however, the Black Hawk mayor doesn’t predict any major developments this year.

“We will not have any new properties in 2010,” he said. “There aren’t any under construction. What we will see in Black Hawk are underperforming properties lowering the number of slot machines on their properties. We do not have failed properties, but we may have failed operators. There’s always another gaming company willing to come in and purchase a property at a discount and do some sort of capital expansion after they purchase it. All of that is good for the customer.” The mayor pointed out Gregory Street as prime property for retail revitalization.

“We need something that would enhance the overall experience to come to the Black Hawk and Central City area. In the past, the day-trippers have not necessarily wanted to come up and do anything other than gaming. Now, we have a critical mass of hotel rooms and destination customers, which means retail business will certainly work.”

History lesson. David Forsyth, Gilpin Historical Society executive director, isn’t a quitter. When I challenged him recently to identify the odd intact cabin that’s stationed in the middle of Fitzgeralds Casino in Black Hawk, he was stumped.

Even after looking at some old photos, he couldn’t pin down the cabin’s original use. But he didn’t give up. Forsyth got a hold of an edition of Sanborn Maps, old maps that showed every building in town and the building materials they were built with for fire insurance purposes.
He also found a book written in 1961 by Frank Hollenback that said the mysterious corrugated metal roof building was a bakery built in 1904.

“It looks like there were some additions on the back of the building that are no longer there,” Forsyth said. “It was built next to
Ben Olson’s place (a confectionary store), that’s no longer there.”
And even though no one at Fitzgeralds knows the origin of the cabin which they built their casino around, Forsyth guesses that the casino company kept the cabin because “it was their best effort to save some history.”

~ Penny Parker is a columnist for The Denver Post. She’s always on the prowl for tidbits and tips from Colorado’s gaming communities. Call her at 303-619-5209 or e-mail
pparker@denverpost.com