Caesars Virginia and the City of Danville: Building a New Business Destination

Caesars Virginia and Danville Video

Public Power Supports Caesars in Building a Destination Resort

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation enabling the creation of casinos in five Virginia communities, including the City of Danville. Danville City Council and other government leaders immediately set to work on the opportunity. Much to their surprise, after the City of Danville put out a request for proposals, six casino operators quickly responded.

By the end of 2024, Caesars Virginia — a full-scale casino and resort built on the site of a former mill — opened its doors. But those years in between involved a lot of work and partnership between the city and Caesars Entertainment.

“Initially, we didn’t know how many casino operators would be interested in locating in Danville,” said Ken Larking, Danville City Manager. “As it turned out, there were a lot, so it was kind of like economic development in reverse. We had to switch our way of thinking about how we select the right operator for our community.”

After reviewing the different proposals, Caesars Entertainment stood out as the best option, according to Larking, who noted that Caesars shared the city’s desire to build a destination resort, rather than a simple casino.

“Once we got down to it and they selected us, we saw that we both had a very similar vision for what this could be,” said Chris Albrecht, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Caesars Virginia. “It’s a true premier destination location, from our beautiful hotel to all our amazing restaurants — including the only Gordon Ramsay in the Commonwealth of Virginia — to our Pantheon events space. Those are things that both us and the city really aligned on, providing this entertainment location that would be unique and truly one of a kind here on the East Coast.”

Upon selecting Caesars, the City of Danville quickly began collaborating with the organization on plans for the Caesars Virginia facility. In the meantime, the company constructed a temporary casino that operated from May 2023 until the permanent casino opened in December 2024. Danville Utilities worked with Caesars to ensure that the temporary facility had access to the electric and water services needed to operate, while also helping the company secure electrical components through its supplier network. The 40,000-square-foot temporary facility created jobs, boosted the local economy and allowed visitors to enjoy the Caesars experience even while construction was underway on the permanent casino right next door.

Once construction was completed in late 2024, the Caesars Virginia resort — a 587,000-square-foot casino resort with more than 90,000 square feet of gaming space, a 320-room hotel tower and 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space — was ready to open its doors in December of that year. That final step, however, required the transition of electrical service from the temporary casino over to the permanent casino.

While that process was complicated, Danville Utilities worked to make the switchover seamless for the business, according to Greg Combs, Vice President Design and Construction for Caesars Entertainment. Typically, when transitioning from a temporary site to the permanent facility, there is usually some length of time that operations must shut down, according to Combs. However, Danville Utilities made it possible for Caesars to maintain operations with no gap in service.

Jason Grey, Director of Utilities for Danville Utilities, believes the seamless transition as well as the services that Danville Utilities has provided to the casino since it opened are possible because the public power system focuses on service, not profit.

“I think we can be more responsive because they could pick up the phone,” Grey said. “They know who we are. They can call us directly. They can interact directly with us. So, that personal relationship is at a higher level. I would say, as a municipal electric operator or distribution provider, that level of service is higher than it is at other utilities.”

Over his long career with Caesars, Combs said, he has had experience working with many different forms of utilities throughout the construction process, including public power, investor owned and cooperatives. Danville Utilities went beyond his expectations, serving as an example of the potential strengths of the public power model, he said.

“Honestly, the experience that we had here was beyond any compliment that I could give them,” Combs said. “It doesn’t always work that way. Here, they were very, very engaged with us, and that’s important.”

Since the transition from temporary to permanent casino, Caesars Virginia has welcomed more than 2 million visitors and continues to strongly collaborate with the City of Danville and Danville Utilities.

Learn more about the unique relationship between Caesars Virginia and Danville Utilities by watching the video.

About the Campaign

Throughout 2025, AMP plans to feature AMP Member utilities and the local businesses they serve in the Public Power is Good for Business multimedia campaign. The campaign will produce a series of videos with the goal of promoting the benefits of public power from the perspective of commercial and industrial customers, highlighting the reliability of public power, as well as the variety of businesses that operate in AMP’s Member communities. It will also illustrate the reasons public power communities are an attractive option for businesses.