Hard Rock reports substantial progress on groundbreaking anniversary

Construction crews have removed much of what remained of the former Bristol Mall, the site was prepared and vertical construction of the 300-room luxury hotel is now well underway. Beneath and behind the six-story hotel’s steel skeleton, work is also progressing on the single-story space that will include the casino gaming floor, spa, restaurant and bar options that will comprise the facility, once construction is completed in summer 2024.

“Our team is excited to mark the one-year anniversary since our December 2022 groundbreaking,” said Allie Evangelista, president, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol. “We have a lot of amazing progress to celebrate during the last 12 months. We continue to grow our team, in anticipation of opening the permanent facility next summer and have hosted numerous hiring and training events over the last year.”

The Bristol Casino, future home of Hard Rock employs about 600 but the full Hard Rock is expected to employ about twice that number.

Permanent facility plans call for a 303-room luxury hotel with a spa, indoor/outdoor pool, world-class smoking and non-smoking gaming areas featuring over 1,500 slot machines and 75 table games, players club and expanded Hard Rock Sportsbook. Dining venues will include Council Oak Steakhouse, Hard Rock Café, YouYu Noodle Bar and a large food hall.

It will also feature a state of the art entertainment venue — Hard Rock Live — with 2,000 seats plus retail space including a Rock Shop and Unity Venue.

All those plans and progress are generating substantial excitement in the city and region, Bristol Virginia Mayor Neal Osborne said Wednesday. “It’s hard to quantify how exciting this is. It has been incredible to see how fast it has progressed while, at the same time, also being very successful with the existing space they have,” Osborne said.

“The increased revenue we’ve seen in our local taxes, other localities have seen through the Regional Improvement Commission — money that is coming into the region — and all the good things Hard Rock is doing in the community,” Osborne said. “It’s been an all-around win and a very exciting year to see that progress happen so quickly.”

About 100 construction workers are on site now, but that is expected to increase to 250 to 300 in the drive to completion.

The 20,000-square-foot Bristol Casino was the first in Virginia, opening in July 2022. In its first year of operation, it attracted one million visitors from across the U.S. and several foreign countries, paid out more than $92 million in jackpots and over $25 million in taxes, casino officials previously said.

The Bristol Casino reported over $160 million in adjusted gaming revenue in its first year of operation, generating about $28 million in state gaming taxes with $8.7 million flowing back to this region. The 12 counties and two cities served by the commission received about $625,000 apiece.

From January through September 2023, the Bristol Casino reported over 34,000 slot machine jackpots totaling $89.2 million, according to the Virginia Lottery, which oversees casino gaming in the state.

At the same time, the Bristol Casino, future home of Hard Rock, generated $21.7 million in gaming tax revenues for the Commonwealth and the region.

The Bristol Casino reported nearly $134 million in adjusted gross revenues during the first ten months of this year.

“For our many loyal guests, we recently reached two impressive milestones, 100,000 in Unity member registrations and $150 million in [total] jackpot payouts. All of this success is due to our guests and our wonderful team members, all of whom I want to recognize in this season of thanks. As we look to 2024, I am incredibly excited to continue, and build on, this strong momentum for Hard Rock Bristol,” Evangelista said.

Osborne said Hard Rock’s generosity also benefits the entire region. “On one hand it’s great to have the tax revenue, the jobs and a big business. But it’s icing on the cake when you see what good neighbors they are for our city and the whole region,” Osborne said.

Just this week they presented a $14,535 check to Bristol Speedway Children’s Charities to assist with resources for children facing a broad range of challenges, such as learning disabilities, cancer, or living in broken homes. Funds were raised by ‘Bristol Casino — Future Home of Hard Rock’ team members through their team member dining room in November.

“This is an incredibly generous donation,” said Betsy Holleman, senior manager of development & events for Speedway Children’s Charities. “It is donations like these that help the Bristol community thrive, especially children facing adversities like sickness or instability. Hard Rock Bristol has helped assist struggling children with basic needs, better home environment and guidance navigating hardships.”

In a statement, Evangelista said they are “honored” to partner with organizations like Speedway Children’s Charities.

“We are so proud that Hard Rock Bristol was able to make an impact to support struggling children in Bristol. Partnering with community-based organizations is one of many ways that Hard Rock can give back and support our local neighbors in need,” she said.

And that is only the latest in what has been a regular pattern of giving.

“As we demonstrate the commitment to our local Bristol, Tri-Cities and Southwest Virginia communities, we continue to invest — through our time, talent and resources — in those local nonprofits that serve our neighbors in need. I am proud that we have made over $650,000 in local charitable contributions, and we are not stopping there,” Evangelista said.

Going forward, the city will monitor the Gate City Highway corridor

“My only concern originally, even before Hard Rock became a reality on Gate City Highway, was the traffic. We’ve had traffic studies, we’re doing some improvements to sidewalks out there,” Osborne said. “I think the Gate City Highway corridor will grow organically, as far as business, and we may need to see some infrastructure improvements.

“The sky is the limit on how big Hard Rock can grow and how successful they can be,” the mayor said. “It will be a good problem to have if we have to look at the design of the corridor for traffic.”