Aird rips Petersburg's casino pick, blasts council for choosing self-service over serving citizens

PETERSBURG – The chief patron of the successful legislation that brought the long-pursued casino referendum has blasted Petersburg City Council over the choice of its former collaborator as the winning bidder for the business.

In a scathing statement Friday night, Sen. Lashrecse Aird also pushed back at the city’s earlier claim that it wrote but never sent a letter of intent to one of the other four vendors “under duress” so that Aird would have a name to use as a bargaining chip in Richmond. That letter, dated the same date as last week’s reconvened session, stated that Petersburg intended to go with Bally’s Corporation over eventual winner The Cordish Companies.

According to the nonprofit news outlet The Virginia Mercury, the letter was in response to claims that Aird and the General Assembly would reject Petersburg’s host-city designation if it did not go with Bally’s, which claimed a better relationship with the hospitality union that would represent workers there than any of the other four vendors, including Cordish.

Aird, D-Petersburg, called those claims “a blatant and transparent revisionist history aimed at distracting from Council’s original intent – as demonstrated in previous years – to christen an operator that met their personal priorities while deprioritizing positive outcomes for the city.”

Wednesday evening, council unanimously chose Cordish and co-developer Bruce Smith Enterprise to build a $1.4 billion casino-centric mixed-use community on 92 acres off Wagner Road. The decision followed a 90-minute closed session and was overshadowed by an orchestrated no-comment move by councilors, despite the city claiming it to be “the largest economic development and tourism project” in Petersburg’s 400-year history.

Cordish was chosen over Bally’s, Penn Entertainment, The Warrenton Group and Rush Street Gaming. Rush Street owns Rivers Casino in Portsmouth and was hoping to open a second Rivers in Petersburg.

In the statement, Aird hinted that she and her colleagues had done most of the heavy lifting this year on the project. But she said it was all done “in good faith” with the understanding that Petersburg officials would remember last year’s debacle, where the hospitality union shunned Petersburg for siding with what they said was labor unfriendly Cordish.

“Choosing to move forward with a developer without receiving a public commitment to good jobs is deeply concerning,” Aird’s statement read. “Any economic development project of this scale proposed in the City of Petersburg, or our Commonwealth, should bring wealth and good jobs to the workers in our community.”

Aird also denied that she was pushed into slamming the decision by any labor group or organization, “This is a core value that I have held my entire life,” the statement read.

A caveat from last year

From the outset of the 2024 session, the General Assembly – especially the Democratic-controlled state Senate – made it clear Petersburg was being watched this year to avoid the setbacks the city suffered last year by partnering with Cordish. In 2023, the Senate General Laws & Technology Committee added an amendment to the Petersburg proposal that Cordish must pay a “prevailing wage rate” for any casino, hotel or entertainment-venue worker.

The prevailing wage rate is the average wage paid to workers similarly employed in specific job areas. Federal law requires that all people in that specific area of employment receive the same amount of hourly or non-exempt pay.

At that time, Petersburg was vying with Richmond to join Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth as Virginia’s host cities. Richmond – whose voters narrowly rejected their own referendum in 2021 – prevailed in that battle. However, last November, the capital city’s voters turned the referendum away by an even wider margin.

Petersburg seized that opportunity for a third try at landing a casino.

When the measure came up for committee action this session, committee chair Sen. Jeremy McPike of Prince William County – who pushed for the prevailing-wage amendment last year – reminded Petersburg officials he had not forgotten last year. McPike also sought an assurance from Altman that the city would be doing business differently this time around.

In her statement Friday night, Aird suggested the city abandoned that promise.

“When I chose to introduce [Senate Bill 628], I made it clear to the people I represent in Petersburg, the city and the General Assembly, that making Petersburg an eligible host city and allowing for a referendum was contingent upon the city’s willingness to have a process, increase public-engagement, prioritize workers and the development of a plan for how revenues would be used to uplift the people in our community. I’ve made this abundantly clear in all my comments and publicly at every stage of this process,” Aird said. “With what was characterized to me as a shared desire from the city for the same, I have in good faith collaborated with and fulfilled requests from City officials, with the understanding that we were collectively working towards the common goal of the best possible outcome for our citizens while navigating a dual course of General Assembly approval and their selection of an operator.”

Reaction not a surprise

Aird’s dressing-down of the Cordish decision Friday was no real surprise, given that she issued a statement after Wednesday night’s vote that was tepid at best.

“During the reconvened session, the General Assembly took action to move [Senate Bill] 628 forward, which allows Petersburg to be an eligible host city and move towards a referendum on a casino,” she said then. “As a result, the city had the responsibility for the next steps which included the selection of an operator, which they have formally now done.”

Friday’s statement was far more pointed.

“The city’s actions demonstrate the ongoing struggle within the city’s governance in the pursuit of what the citizens of Petersburg truly deserve, which is an economic development project that they have a say in and truly benefits all citizens,” Aird said.

Also not a surprise: Petersburg’s no-comment response to the Aird statement. When reached by The Progress-Index Friday night for reaction, city spokesperson Joanne Williams said she was not sent a copy of the statement in advance and was reading it online.

Asked if a response was expected, Williams replied, “No.”

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: State senator blasts Petersburg over pick for casino vendor