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FRENCH LICK – Not even glitz and glamour could hide the empty storefronts.
Downtown French Lick on Tuesday was a stark contrast to the bustling French Lick Resort-Casino, which for a few hours returned to its swinging 1920s glory during a sneak preview for thousands before it opens Friday.
Just blocks away, businesses displayed for-sale signs – symbols of a struggling economy.
“Investors just don’t want to take a chance until they know it’s a sure thing,” said Marilyn Fenton, 72, who owns an antique and crafts shop in French Lick. “But what are tourists going to say now? Look at that empty downtown?”
Fenton voiced her concerns as the restored French Lick resort made its debut nearly two decades after residents began lobbying lawmakers for a casino to revive this struggling county, which once hosted U.S. presidents and gangster Al Capone but now regularly posts one of the state’s highest unemployment rates.
During the day, businessmen drank cocktails before lunch and gambled $20 a hand on blackjack, models dressed as flappers posed and visitors plunked pennies into slot machines as they glimpsed the heyday this southern Indiana town hopes to recapture with Friday’s opening of the state’s 11th casino.
“It was worth the wait for history to be restored to Orange County,” said James Carnes, representing the West Baden Town Council. “I believe this is the beginning of prosperity that lies ahead.”
The Indiana Gaming Commission last year awarded the Orange County casino license to Blue Sky Casino LLC, a partnership between the Cook Group, a Bloomington medical device maker and principal in the casino developer, and Lauth Group, an Indianapolis-based real estate company. Construction began in August 2005.
French Lick, where a dozen parlor casinos once thrived, is the last place in Indiana to see gambling return after the state legalized riverboat casinos 13 years ago. It will be the final casino allowed under state law.
The $382 million project, built between two historic hotels, includes the casino, renovations to the two hotels and the addition of golf courses and retail shops.
More than 1,300 new employees have been hired at the French Lick Springs Resort & Spa, and more are expected when the nearby West Baden Springs Hotel reopens in 2007, officials said.
Many of those workers rushed Tuesday to complete finishing touches at the French Lick hotel, polishing richly stained wooden cabinets in coffee shops and removing forgotten tools as the first of thousands of guests marveled at the hotel’s paneled ceilings, chandeliers and gold leaf trimmings.
“It’s awesome,” said Marilou Combs, 73, of nearby Mitchell as she ate fresh cantaloupe and drank coffee from white china. “It takes me back to the old Al Capone days.”
French Lick became world-renowned at the turn of the 20th century, when visitors came in droves to soak in mineral springs believed to have medical benefits.
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