The new Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center in northwest Cedar Rapids is slated to open its doors on New Year’s Eve 2026, developers announced at a groundbreaking ceremony at the future casino site Friday morning.
The ceremony, which drew about 200 attendees, was held just a day after the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved a gaming license for the Cedar Rapids Development Group, the project’s developers, and the Linn County Gaming Association, which will distribute 8% of the casino’s proceeds to area nonprofit agencies.
Brent Stevens, founder and chairman of the board of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, which will operate the $275 million Cedar Crossing casino, effusively praised the political leaders, investors and labor leaders who helped bring the project to fruition, before announcing the 22-month construction window for the new facility.
“Our supporters have stayed with us through two referendums and three rounds having at it with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, all of which has led us to today,” Mr. Stevens said. “We’ve been here in the great state of Iowa for over 25 years, building three world-class facilities in Dubuque, Northwood and Sioux City, and here we are in Cedar Rapids. This is going to be the best one yet. More amenities, more places to become a part of this community, more places to be entertained. And we promise to make you very, very proud with this development.”
Anne Parmley, board president of the Linn County Gaming Association, praised several local leaders in her remarks, including Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, who along with former Mayor Ron Corbett “roped me into this.”
“We’re going to make life-changing impacts to our nonprofits in this community,” Ms. Parmley said. “The 8% generosity of the Cedar Rapids development group and P2E has been a resounding message throughout this process. $6 million or more (per year) – the more revenue we generate, the more good we can do.”
Ms. Parmley said the LCGA board will be meeting soon to develop the processes that will be used to allocate gaming funds to area nonprofit groups and agencies.
“This (facility) is more than a casino,” she said. “There’s going to be so much fun to be had at this place, with the restaurants, the 1,500 seat venue. I know my colleagues are looking forward to new places to host meetings and bring in their teams. It’s just a really exciting time to be part of this project, and the LCGA is proud to be a gaming license holder.”
Ms. O’Donnell acknowledged the cold conditions, joking that “as I like to tell my friends, that’s what happens when h— freezes over.”
“We are the lucky ones to be here today,” said Ms. O’Donnell, who campaigned extensively to bring a casino to Cedar Rapids after failed attempts in 2014 and 2017. “There were a lot of people over many, many years that had this idea and this vision. I’m looking at one of them right now,” she said, acknowledging former council member Justin Shields, one of the first advocates for the project.
“This has been a vision for Cedar Rapids long before the honor to stand here in front of you today,” she said. “So I just want to give my gratitude to the folks whose shoulders we stand upon today.”
She noted that casino developers will receive “zero money from the city. They asked for zero. Now, when was the last time that happened? They just promised us upside and showed us the vision for what the upside would look like.”
She also noted that the new casino will be built on the former site of Cooper’s Mill hotel and restaurant just west of the Cedar River, an area significantly damaged in the flood of 2008 that is still working on recovery.
“We talk about flood protection in plain sight, this is a part of it, and they are supporting those efforts here along the greenway,” she said. “And I think the biggest part – this was about Cedar Rapids, and it was by the people of Cedar Rapids that made this happen, the emails, the calls, the texts. What I appreciated the most as mayor was the swagger. There was significant swagger. When I heard my parents’ church friends say, ‘well, we don’t like a casino, but we gotta compete. Why aren’t they allowed to compete?’ People stood up, they put their shoulders back, and look what happened when we all did that and walked in the same direction. This is what Cedar Rapids looks like.
“As my friend, council member Tyler Olson said, we’re on a heater,” she added. “So the challenge for all of us now is to leverage this opportunity, see it for what it is, and lean into it.”
