Tinley Inches Closer To Bringing Racino To Village

TINLEY PARK, IL — Tinley Park's trustees moved forward in its bid to recruit a racino by amending two key zoning ordinances to permit a racing and gambling business in the village boundaries.

The ordinances now permit a "racino entertainment complex" to operate in an office and restricted industrial district, and in the Rich Township entertainment and tourism overlay district.

What that means is that the changes pave the way for developers to build a racino on the grounds of the former mental health center site, which sits in an office and restricted office industrial, or ORI, district. The overlay district gives developers flexibility to add shopping, dining and other tourist amenities on the grounds. For comparison, the Hollywood Amphitheatre was built in an ORI.

The vote was unanimous. Mayor Jacob Vandenberg was absent.

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 Amphitheatre, and because of its ties to one of the developers behind the push for a Tinley racino.

Playing in the Park LLC applied for a license 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 Tinley's mental health center site. That project was set aside to make way for a racino instead.

Early plans call for a 4,000-seat grandstand and a ⅞-mile track, as well as gambling facilities.

The Illinois Racing Board was scheduled to vote on the licenses and racing dates for Heidner and others Tuesday, but delayed the vote until Sept. 24 to give Churchill Downs Inc., corporate owners of Arlington International Racecourse, time to reconsider its decision not pursue a new license under the gambling expansion legislation, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.