Gambling Giant Applies To Bring Horse Racing To Tinley Park

TINLEY PARK, IL — An owner of one of the largest video gaming operations in Illinois and a partner of a scrapped senior-housing development plan in Tinley Park has applied to bring horse racing to the village next year in the latest move that shows plans to bring a racino here are heating up.

Playing in the Park LLC has applied with the Illinois Racing Board to offer harness racing three nights a week on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays in December 2020 on the site of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center. Rick Heidner, a real estate developer, and Timothy Carey, the general manager of Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, are listed as officers. Heidner also is an owner of Gold Rush Gaming, and he was a partner of Melody Square LLC, which proposed building a sweeping, largely age-restricted community on the mental health center site. That project was set aside to make way for a racino instead.

"It kind of dropped on us out of nowhere," Village Attorney Patrick Connolly told the marketing committee in July.

In June, Gov. JB Pritzker signed massive gambling expansion legislation that permits, among other provisions, the south suburbs to build one casino and one "racino," or combination horse racing track and casino.

Tinley Park emerged as a front-runner for a racino because of its available land, because it is home to the Convention Center and Hollywood Casino Amphitheater and because of its ties to Heidner. Village Manager David Niemeyer and trustees are pointed out that a racino complex would be in line with the entertainment base Tinley already has. Early plans call for a 4,000-seat grandstand and a ⅞-mile track, as well as gambling facilities.

For its part, the village also is taking methodical steps to ensure a racino could be built in Tinley Park. Officials are working to amend zoning ordinances that permit office and restricted industrial uses for the land at 183rd Street and Harlem Avenue to include racing and entertainment.

Two firms, Innovation Group and Convergence Strategy Group, have been hired to conduct market, feasibility and economic-impact studies. And on July 31, Niemeyer sent Heidner a letter of intent that maps out the paths the two sides will take to bring plans to fruition, including securing licenses and buying the property the mental health center sits on.

Tinley Park does not yet own the property; the State of Illinois does. One of the requirements before the village purchases the land from the state is that it must conduct an updated environmental assessment. The last report, from 2014, showed that the land is contaminated and needs remediation. Estimates put the cost of clean-up at about $12 million.

Because the racino is also a casino, operators must also apply for a gaming license. It was not clear Friday whether anyone from Tinley's proposed project had yet applied for that license. However, the racing board will hear Heidner's application at 11 a.m., Tues., Sept. 17.