Tysons Casino Bill Advances To VA Senate Committee For Wednesday Vote

RICHMOND, VA — Virginia Sen. Dave Marsden's (D-Burke) claim that no one had come forward to oppose the bill he was sponsoring that would give the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the authority to put a casino referendum on a ballot was met with skepticism from one lawmaker on the senate gaming subcommittee.

During Tuesday's hearing, Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington), who chairs the main general laws and technology committee, pointed out that for all the previous casino referendum bills that the general assembly approved, local elected officials came forward and asked for the authority to put a referendum on a ballot.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology will consider SB 675 and vote on whether it should move forward for a full vote in the senate. The bill proposes a casino complex could be built in Tysons.

Ebbin said he was conflicted about the bill. He recognized that a casino could bring a lot of revenue to Fairfax County, but he questioned whether there was as much buy-in from the local community as Marsden suggested.

"I've also gotten hundreds of letters in my office, including from the McLean Hunt Homeowners Association, the McLean Citizens Association, the Great Falls Civic Association," Ebbin said. "You're going to expect some opposition to any proposal like this, but I've gotten a few hundred."

In addition to the ones Ebbin mentioned, a number of community groups have voiced their opposition to the bill, including the Sully District Council of Citizens Associations, Western Fairfax County Citizens Association, Reston Association, and the Vienna Town Council.

On Tuesday night, the Reston Citizens Association passed a referendum saying in "the strongest possible terms" that it opposed any legislation authorizing a casino or related “public entertainment” developments in Fairfax County. The referendum also called on the county's representatives to the general assembly to vote against the bill.

"I wish that the Board of Supervisors had prepared some kind of public engagement process at the front end, rather than us telling that they can do a referendum only on one site," he said.

Ebbin told Marsden this case felt a little bit different than other casino referendum bills the general assembly had approved before.

"I'm not going to be comfortable supporting without the local government more actively involved and seeking some support from Richmond.

Marsden responded by saying that it was the "nature of politics" and not one member of the board of supervisors called him to say "don't do this."

Ever since Patch first spoke to Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn in September about Comstock Holding Company's casino plans, he has been very clear about his position on Marsden's bill.

"I oppose putting a casino on the Silver Line and Comstock should be aware of my position on that, it has not changed since I first became aware of casino interest in the Dulles corridor late last year," he said. "The land around these stations is already valuable for so many other socially beneficial uses, and plopping a casino into these emerging transit-oriented development communities during their formative years is a bad idea.”

Providence Supervisor Dalia Palchik, who represents the district where Comstock plans to build the casino complex, told Patch last week that no one had reached out to her office about the proposed legislation.

Related:

• Tysons Casino Bill: Reston Citizens Group Opposes With New Resolution
• Letter Sent To Remind Marsden Of Alcorn's Opposition To Casino Bill
• Letter: Boysko, Salim Tell VA Lawmakers They Oppose Tysons Casino Bill

In fact, neither Alcorn nor Palchik, or anyone in the wider community where the casino would be built, had read the bill or heard any specific details about the plan until Marsden filed the legislation on Jan. 17, according to Patch's reporting since September.

For a full year, there were no public hearings nor presentations by Marsden or Comstock that provided detailed information about the project or offered an opportunity for public feedback. Everyone was kept in the dark until the bill was submitted and legislators began to weigh its merits. Without Comstock being mentioned specifically in the bill or during Tuesday's presentation, the public had no way of knowing who would benefit directly from the bill's passage.

After Marsden finished his presentation on Tuesday, subcommittee members voted to advance SB 675 on to the full Virginia Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology for a vote on Wednesday afternoon.

The version that committee members would be considering was a substitute, which included recent changes by Marsden. In addition to identifying Tysons as the place where the proposed casino would be built, the current bill removes language about the Northern Virginia's prevailing wages and labor.

"It allows for six casino licenses in Virginia, primarily based on regional fairness and diversity," he said. "Nothing, as it currently stands, would be north of Petersburg, which is almost the start of south-side Virginia, and there would be nothing in Northern Virginia."

Marsden argued that all regions of the state should have an equal opportunity to allow a casino to be built in their area as a way to create local jobs and generate tax revenue. That money could be used to fund K-12 education and boost funding for Metrorail in Northern Virginia.

"We have a casino in Maryland, across the river on the south side of the District, south of Alexandria, that is taking $150 million a year from Virginia's coffers and from Northern Virginia citizens," Marsden said, referencing MGM National in National Harbor, Maryland.

Money from a casino located in Tysons could also offset the loss in tax revenue as a result of the dwindling commercial real estate market.

"We're having since the pandemic just an incredible decline, if you will, in commercial real estate value and occupancy in Tysons Corner," Marsden said on Tuesday. "There's 17 percent vacancy, but that's not just the whole picture. There's also a 50 percent rate of the absence of anybody using a particular facility. It may still have a lease, but nobody's there. There are still about five or six years of leases yet to expire, and the whole world has changed in terms of how they use office space."

During the 2023 legislative session, Marsden and Del. Wren Williams ( R-Stuart) introduced legislation similar to SB 675, but quickly withdrew those bills. At that time, Marsden did not identify the real estate developer who had approached him about introducing a casino referendum bill.

Patch first broke the story in September that Comstock Holding Companies, which is headquartered at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, was that unnamed developer. During the intervening months, the company has contributed more than $637,000 to the campaigns of candidates running during the 2023 election season, according to financial filings made to the state board of elections.

Related:

• Anti-Casino Effort Joined by Sully, West Fairfax Community Groups
• Let's Stop Casino Bill SB-675 In Committee: Call To Action
• Casino Developer Gave $51K To VA Senate Gaming Sub-Committee Members
• Tysons Casino Location Verified By VA Legislator Who Introduced Bill

Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

Those financial filing reports also showed that since last November's election, Comstock and its associates have donated a total of $51,000 to the campaign committees of eight members of the 15-member gaming sub-committee.

Not once during Tuesday's sub-committee hearing was Comstock mentioned, nor did anyone who represented the developer speak in support of the project.

Julie Coons, president of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, was one of the three people who spoke Tuesday to support Marsden's bill. She called the proposed development, which would include a hotel, conference center, and concert venue, an important driver for diversification of the region's economy.

"The creation of a mixed-use, transit-oriented complex that would include not only a casino, but a state-of-the-art conference facility and performing arts venue is estimated to contribute an additional $2 billion to the region and would bring thousands of new jobs to Fairfax County," she said.

Coons added that the development would attract a "world-class business operator" to the state, apparently meaning the company that would operate the casino in much the same way that MGM Resorts runs the casino at National Harbor, Maryland.

"If approved, by the Board of Supervisors, a development of this nature would diversify and broaden tax revenue for Fairfax County," she said. "These new tax revenues could offset recently reduced commercial real estate tax revenue resulting from the seismic negative changes that have occurred in the office sector as a result of pandemic era remote work policies."