Hotel and major retailers springing up along the interstate at new Hollywood Casino Joliet development
While construction on the towering Bally’s Chicago hotel has stalled amid a dispute with the city over video gambling terminals, a more modest hotel is going up by the new Hollywood Casino Joliet — along with a host of new retailers.
One year after Hollywood Casino Joliet launched a $185 million land-based casino in the Rock Run Collection, the sprawling 310-acre mixed-use development is breaking new ground by the busy Interstate 80 and Interstate 55 interchange.
On Thursday, developer Cullinan Properties revealed five major retailers — Five Below, Maurices, Spencer’s, Buckle and Milano Nail Salon — which are set to join previously announced anchor tenant Dick’s House of Sport in opening next year.
Meanwhile, the seven-story, 180-room Drury Plaza Hotel is rising up next to the already busy casino at the burgeoning southwest suburban center that also includes the completed first phase of an apartment complex.
“I see unprecedented traffic coming to the site,” said Kristy Johns, vice president of marketing for East Peoria-based Cullinan. “We are doing something that’s never been done and opened up the floodgates … to millions of people who are going by, and they’re going to stop.”
Johns said there are more than 500,000 square feet of executed deals with local, regional and national tenants in the development pipeline, running the gamut from box stores to restaurants and entertainment venues, making the center an experiential oasis along the interstate.
Even Dick’s House of Sport — the first ground-up prototype in Chicago of a new model for the retailer — is not your father’s big-box sporting goods store, featuring everything from golf simulators to climbing walls.
The retail development is likely to increase traffic at Hollywood Casino Joliet, which has seen revenues soar since relocating to dry land in August 2025 after nearly a quarter century along the banks of the Des Plaines River as one of the state’s original riverboat casinos.
Hollywood Casino Joliet ranks fifth this year among the state’s 17 casinos with $98.4 million in adjusted gross receipts through August, up 68% from the same period last year, according to reports from the Illinois Gaming Board.
Co-owned Hollywood Casino Aurora, which opened its $360 million entertainment complex in June near I-88 and Chicago Premium Outlets mall, has seen a similar boost in business since moving from a riverboat to a land-based casino.
In August, Hollywood Casino Aurora ranked third in the state with nearly $16.6 million in adjusted gross receipts, according to Gaming Board data. Rivers Casino Des Plaines topped the list at $46.3 million, followed by Wind Creek in south suburban East Hazel Crest, which generated $19.8 million in revenue for the month.
Hard Rock Casino Rockford was fourth at $13.8 million, while Hollywood Casino Joliet ranked fifth at $13.2 million in revenue for August.
Penn Entertainment, which owns both Hollywood Casino Joliet and Aurora, has seen good early returns on its more than $500 million investment in new land-based facilities for its suburban Chicago properties.
Meanwhile, Bally’s Chicago faced tough questions at a special City Council hearing Wednesday over the construction slowdown at its $1.7 billion casino complex going up at the former Tribune printing plant site in River West.
Last month, Bally’s Chicago sent a reset notice to the Chicago Community Builders Collective, the general contracting partnership overseeing construction, putting the 34-story hotel and other nongaming amenities on hold, citing the City Council’s approval of VGTs as a violation of its host agreement.
A subsequent “going concern” warning issued by Bally’s on Aug. 17, followed by the sudden resignation last week of the Rhode Island-based company’s CFO, raised concerns among some aldermen as to whether Bally’s has the financial wherewithal to complete the project.
In May 2022, Bally’s won a heated competition to build Chicago’s first casino, including a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions. Bally’s has been operating a smaller temporary casino at Medinah Temple in River North since 2023.
While Bally’s still plans to open the state’s largest casino by first quarter of 2027, it has not given a date for delivering the rest of the project, including amenities that have helped propel new casinos from Rockford to Aurora into the top revenue tier.
Bally’s Chicago ranked sixth in the state with $12.8 million in revenue during August, losing ground — and tax revenue — to those new casinos as its own construction project drags on.
In Joliet, construction continues apace at Rock Run Center, turning the hardscrabble environs of a southwest suburban interstate exchange into a major roadside attraction.
“For years we asked people to picture what this site could be,” Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy said in a statement. “Today you do not have to picture anything. The casino is open, families are living here, and now we are breaking ground on the retail heart of a $1.5 billion development. Rock Run Collection is not a dream. It is here.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com