Black Hawk and Central City are combining resources to collaboratively market the gambling towns to conventioneers and tourists, a remarkable shift for once-bitter rivals who are separated by about a mile but whose fortunes are a world apart.
Armed with $175,000 from the Black Hawk Business Improvement District and $75,000 from Central City, the newly launched Black Hawk/Central City Visitor and Convention Bureau will pitch the two mountain towns as a single attraction.
City and industry officials are focusing on what they deem to be untapped markets, such as convention attendees in Denver, skiers and visitors who swing through Colorado on group tours.
The sister towns have long had an acrimonious relationship. Once the state’s gambling powerhouse, Central City’s fortunes tanked in the mid-1990s after Las Vegas-style casinos sprouted in Black Hawk. Such developments weren’t allowed in Central City because officials there adhered to strict historic preservation guidelines they believed were at the heart of the constitutional amendment that legalized gambling in the Colorado towns in 1990.
The towns fired dueling lawsuits at each other in 2001. Central City’s $100 million federal lawsuit, which claimed Black Hawk officials conspired to kill gambling in Central City, was dismissed in 2004. Black Hawk’s suit, which alleged Central City officials lied to get the district attorney to convene a grand jury to look into a dispute between the towns, was settled out of court.
“In the past, both cities had legitimate issues with one another, and by and large, those issues have been ironed out,” Black Hawk Mayor David Spellman said Tuesday. “We anticipate by using the synergy of both cities, and all of the casinos, that we will increase not only the depths of the market but broaden it as well.”
Revenue disparity
Black Hawk’s casinos generate more than seven times the revenue of Central City’s casinos. Gambling revenue statewide, which grew astronomically in the 1990s and includes casinos in Cripple Creek, have tapered to 3 to 4 percent annual growth in recent years. The state’s 46 casinos posted revenue of $782 million in 2006.
“We thought this would be a good tool to grow the market long-term,” said Central City Mayor Buddy Schmalz, who is president of the bureau’s five-member board, which includes Spellman and three industry representatives. “The goal is to look at some untapped markets and to work toward creating more of a destination.”
Already, the bureau’s director, Joanne Lah, is working with organizers of upcoming conventions in Denver to put a night of gambling in Black Hawk and Central City on their agendas. The ultimate goal is to lure some of those smaller meetings to the gambling towns.
Lah said the towns can handle a meeting of up to 500 people at this time, though that will double with the completion of the oft-delayed hotel by Ameristar Casinos, which is set for 2009 in Black Hawk.
Lah has also contacted ski resorts, such as Copper Mountain and Keystone, to jointly market to out-of-town skiers evening trips to the gambling towns. The bureau also has its eye on group tours.
“There are certainly hundreds of those tours that come through Colorado every year, and we want to get on their radar screens as well,” Lah said.
The bureau plans to launch its website, www.visitbhcc.com, in June.
Mixed reactions to plan
“It may be the first step toward joint efforts between the two towns,” said Schmalz, whose family owns the Dostal Alley casino in Central City. “Some people really are excited that we’re going off in that direction.”
For others, however, the bitterness still festers.
“I just think that, generally speaking, that it would not be really beneficial to Central City. There are better places to spend the money,” said Ross Grimes, whose family owns the Famous Bonanza and Easy Street casinos in Central City. “This particular thing smells.”
Grimes questions the intentions of Central City manager Lynette Hailey, who is Spellman’s wife.
“We wonder if her allegiance is totally with Central City’s financial interest,” Grimes said. “Is she really on our team?”
Spellman declined to respond to Grimes’ comment. Hailey didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
