CARUTHERSVILLE CASINO SETS GROUNDBREAKING

CARUTHERSVILLE -- Casino Aztar, which will invest more than $40 million in its Mississippi River casino riverboat operation, is going full-speed ahead.

"We start construction on our land-based pavilion next week," said Fritz Johnson, vice president of Aztar Corp. and general manager of the Caruthersville operation.

Aztar representatives, city and state officials will meet at the Aztar site at Fourth Street and Franklin in downtown Caruthersville Wednesday for a groundbreaking ceremony.

The complex will consist of a two-level, 40,000-square-foot pavilion, which will house boarding facilities for the riverboat, food and beverage facilities, Aztar corporate offices.

The facility will also include parking for 1,000 vehicles and docking facilities for a 600-passenger casino riverboat.

"Our boat is about ready," Johnson said.

The riverboat, to be called the "City of Caruthersville," is being outfitted at Jeffersonville, Ind., and should be completed by mid-November.

Aztar was selected by Caruthersville officials as it sole casino riverboat operator in July 1993.

The city and Aztar have already signed a development agreement for the project, the city has received $2.5 million from Aztar for infrastructure work, which is already under way.

Aztar officials say the riverboat will be in operation next spring, regardless of the outcome of Amendment 6, which is on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.

Approval of the amendment would allow games of chance, including slot machines, on riverboat gambling casinos.

"We're in Caruthersville," Johnson said. "Naturally we'd like to see the slots, but poker machines are very popular, along with blackjack and craps."

Aztar has already applied to the Missouri Gaming Commission for a riverboat gaming license.

Pending licensing and other required approvals, the company anticipates operations will start in late March or early April.

Aztar recently completed a dealer's school, and has started another.

The blackjack school, Johnson said, is a four-week school. The school for craps takes eight weeks to complete.

The Aztar operation is expected to employ about 700 people.

"We need that employment," said Ralph Clayton, publisher of the Caruthersville Democrat-Argus newspaper. "We've lost more than 550 jobs since March of this year."

Caruthersville, county seat of Pemiscot County, lost 460 jobs with the closing of Brown Shoe Co. March 31.

Since then, two more companies have closed -- Tipton Box, which employed 60, and R. T. Friction Co., which employed 40.

Unemployment has soared in Pemiscot County, which includes Caruthersville and Hayti. August totals show unemployment in the county at 16 percent.

"We've lost a lot of people during the past two or three decades," Clayton said. The county's population has dwindled from about 47,000 in the 1950s to 21,800.

Aztar, headquartered in Phoenix, is a publicly traded company that operates TropWorld Casino and Entertainment Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., Tropicana Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and Ramada Express Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev.

Aztar recently issued its third-quarter financial report, showing a net income of $7.6 million, or 19 cents per share, fully diluted, compared to $5.3 million, or 13 cents a share, fully diluted, for the same quarter in 1993.