Underground Atlanta is ready to roll the dice.

Cope Linder Architects
This is an artist’s rendering of the proposed casino and redeveloped Underground.

By RACHEL TOBIN RAMOS, LEON STAFFORD

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Underground Atlanta is ready to roll the dice.

The operator of the downtown attraction said he has brought a proposal to the Georgia Lottery Board for a casino that would fund the HOPE scholarship and bring millions in tax dollars to the city.
While the idea of a downtown casino has been kicked around for years, this is the first concrete plan brought forward by a developer and presented to an institution that can make it a reality.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday, developer Dan O’Leary, who with his business partner John Aderhold, holds a 50-year lease on Underground Atlanta, outlined a $450 million proposal that would bring up to 5,000 video lottery machines, completely gut and redevelop Underground and add a new 29-story hotel.

O’Leary estimates the casino would generate gross receipts of $600 million. Half of that would go to the lottery board.

“In order to truly change the perception of Underground,” he said, “we do have to bring a very significant element to that property that it doesn’t have now — a big draw. VLT machines would be an anchor tenant that would bring folks in.”