Ameristar Casino Kansas City Layoffs

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The area’s biggest hotel, the Kansas City Marriott Downtown, has joined the growing list of hotels laying off, furloughing or cutting the hours of employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ameristar's casino and hotel in St. Charles will lose 6 percent of its staff. Its casino and hotel in Kansas City will lose nearly 5 percent of its 1,560 employees, which is about 75 people who. 51 Ameristar Casinos reviews in Kansas City, MO. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

In a WARN Act notification last week, the hotel’s owner, the Kansas City Hotel Group LLC, said 280 employees were affected by the moves, which began around March 20 and have now been extended beyond its initial six-month duration.

“The challenges posed by COVID-19, as well as the ongoing government directives, however, have continued to expand and be extended, and have required or encouraged people to remain in place, resulting in restriction of business, large gatherings and business/personal travel,” the notification reads. “Further these challenges have caused a sudden, severe and worsening downturn in the travel and hospitality industry that now makes it reasonably foreseeable that the Temporary Actions will likely be extended beyond six (6) months.”

The Marriott has 970 rooms and suites, making it the biggest hotel in the metropolitan area. Kevin Pistilli, president of the Rafael Hotel Group, which manages the hotel, could not immediately be reached for comment.

1. Because of mandatory closures, guest limitations imposed by various regulatory authorities, and overall economic conditions due to the pandemic, Boyd Gaming anticipates that it will conduct permanent layoffs that may impact between 25% and 60% of team members at the Ameristar Casino Hotel located at 3200 North Ameristar Drive, Kansas City, MO 64161.
2. CHARLES — After closing along with the state's other casinos March 17, Ameristar Casinos now says it may make furloughs permanent layoffs for as much as 60% of its workforce in St.
3. The casino, owned by Boyd Gaming of Las Vegas, filed a notice with Missouri officials Friday indicating as many as 947 employees could be affected. The Ameristar in Kansas City also filed notice.

The Kansas City Marriott briefly reopened two weeks ago after shutting down for a couple of months. Pistilli said at the time that it was running “a very low occupancy.”

“There’s not a lot of movement going on around the country and people traveling,” Pistilli said. “We’ll come back. We just don’t know when.”

The layoffs come shortly after the manager of two other big area hotels managed by the Marriott Corp., the Westin Crown Center and the Sheraton Crown Center, collectively laid off, furloughed or cut the hours of nearly 500 employees, as the hotel industry continues to reel from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two hotels in Crown Center have 1,441 rooms combined and, like all big hotels that rely on conventions and meetings for a big chunk of their business, were hit hard by the cancellation of those meetings and conventions because of the pandemic and government-ordered lock-downs.

Both hotels are managed by the Marriott Corporation, the world’s biggest hotel chain. The company announced the actions, which it said were temporary and began in March, in WARN Act notifications it filed two weeks ago with the state and with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

The WARN Act is a federal law that requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide advance notification to workers when they’re faced with a plant closing or mass layoff.

The notifications for the two Crown Center hotels came at around the same time the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel, the fourth largest hotel in the metro with 412 rooms, instituted temporary furloughs, layoffs and reductions in hours for 151 employees. The hotel adjoins the Overland Park Convention Center.

The Overland Park hotel said it had begun the actions on March 21 and initially expected them to last less than six months.

But like the Marriott downtown, it said the repeated extension of government lock-down orders restricting large gatherings and travel in general “have caused a sudden, severe and worsening downturn in the hospitality industry that now makes it reasonably foreseeable that these temporary actions may extend beyond six months.”

Jason Fulvi, president and CEO of Visit KC, said 96 meetings and conventions had been canceled this year due to the pandemic, costing the city an estimated $162 million in lost economic impact.

“Nobody has a crystal ball right now to say when conventions will come back,” Fulvi said. “When you look at the industry and read all the articles, listen to the interviews, some people are saying it will come back in the second quarter of next year. And some are saying things may not be full back to normal until 2022. It’s like the pandemic itself. It changes daily.”

Visit KC, formerly known as the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association, has furloughed nearly half its staff of about 45 people. A large portion of its $11 million budget, about 39%, comes from hotel lodging taxes.

Just a few blocks west of the two Crown Center Hotels, Union Station has seen 100% of its income from special events disappear overnight. The special events space closed its doors in mid-March and is getting ready to reopen on a limited basis to members this week.

“Summer is our big tourism time and we desperately need that,” said Union Station President and CEO George Guastello. “We’ve been working closely with the Sheraton and the Westin to try to find ways to put together packages to get people back to Kansas City.”

Guastello said he isn't expecting to see business rebound by more than 20% before the end of the year.

Both Guastello and Fulvi said they were working to promote Kansas City as a drive-time vacation destination.

“We feel that our region is positioned well for some of that market because of the attractions and offerings we have here,” Fulvi said. “So that’s where we’ll spend a lot of our energy.”

Amid the rash of hotel closings, layoffs and furloughs, Kansas City’s newest convention hotel, Loews Kansas City Hotel, opened its doors last week. What was originally planned as a high-profile ribbon-cutting affair in April instead turned into a decidedly low-key event.

“Given what has transpired over the past several weeks, our opening is going to look a little different than we originally anticipated,” Loews Hotels & Co. Chairman and CEO Jonathan Tisch said in a statement.

The 24-story hotel at 15^th and Wyandotte streets, has 800 rooms.

Meanwhile, across the state, more than 1,400 hotel workers are scheduled to be laid off at a dozen St. Louis area hotels, according to a WARN Act notice filed by St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management.

The company cited the COVID-19 pandemic “and its unforeseeable impact on our business.”

Besides the Sheraton and Westin hotels, other hotels in the Kansas City metro area and the number of employees they have laid off or furloughed include:

· Crossroads Hotel at 21^st and Central streets in Kansas City, 151 employees

· Adams Mark Hotel at 9103 E. 39th St. in Kansas City, 138 employees

· Marriott Kansas City Country Club Plaza Hotel at 44^th and Main streets in Kansas City, 114 employees

· Kansas City Embassy Suites at 7640 NW Tiffany Springs Parkway in Kansas City, 92 employees

· 21c Museum Hotel at 219 W. 9th St. in Kansas City, 18 employees

· Ameristar Casino Hotel at 3200 North Ameristar Drive in Kansas City, 578 employees

· Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel at 8801 NW 112^th St. in Kansas City, 86 employees

Ameristar Casinos, Inc. was a casino operator based in Paradise, Nevada.^[4] It was acquired by Pinnacle Entertainment in 2013. The company had eight properties in seven markets.

History[edit]

The roots of Ameristar Casinos date to 1954 when 'Cactus Pete' Piersanti opened Cactus Petes Desert Lodge on U.S. Route 93 just south of the Idaho border in Elko County. The area would later become Jackpot, Nevada. In 1956, Piersanti and others incorporated the property as Cactus Petes, Inc.

The corporation took over management of the neighboring Horseshu Club in 1964. Cactus Petes came under the partial control of Ray Neilsen of Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1967. Neilsen's construction company had built many of the structures at Cactus Pete's. Neilsen's son, Craig, assumed control of day-to-day operations upon the elder Neilsen's death in 1971. Craig H. Neilsen became sole owner in 1984.

A November 1985 automobile accident left Craig H. Neilsen a quadriplegic, but he continued to lead the company and expanded it. Neilsen was named “Best Performing CEO” by the American Gaming Association in 2002, and was inducted into the organization’s “Hall of Fame” in 2005.^[5] Craig H. Neilsen remained chairman and CEO until his unexpected death on November 19, 2006.

Ray H. Neilsen succeeded his father, serving as co-chairman with John Boushy, who also was promoted from president to CEO at the time of Craig’s death.^[6] Boushy resigned in June 2008 and was succeeded by Gordon Kanofsky, who previously served as the company's executive vice president, and now holds the dual role of CEO and vice chairman. Ray H. was named chairman at the same time.^[7][8]

In August 2013, Pinnacle Entertainment bought Ameristar for $869 million plus $1.9 billion in assumed debt.^[9] The company had reportedly been 'on the sales block' since Craig Neilsen's death.^[10]

Expansion[edit]

In 1992 the company made its first investment outside of Jackpot by acquiring a Vicksburg, Mississippi, property known as Delta Pointe. This property was opened in 1994 as Ameristar Casino Vicksburg. The company subsequently constructed an adjoining hotel, and in 2008, completed a $100 million expansion of the facility.^[11] Ameristar opened the first of several riverboat casinos in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1996. In 1998, the company opened the Reserve Hotel Casino in Henderson, Nevada.^[12]

The company was renamed Ameristar Casinos, Inc. and went public in 1993, on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'ASCA.' Company headquarters was moved from Twin Falls to Las Vegas in 1996.

In 2000, Ameristar purchased properties in Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Charles, Missouri, from Station Casinos, Inc., and in 2001, sold The Reserve Hotel and Casino to Station Casinos, which renamed it Fiesta Henderson.^[13]

In 2004, Ameristar acquired the Mountain High Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. In 2006, the Ameristar brand debuted after an $80 million renovation and expansion project that included additional covered parking; and announced details of its planned 33-story hotel and spa. Ameristar officially opened its new Casino Resort Spa complex October 2009 to become the first destination resort casino in Colorado. The property's $230 million expansion included a 33-story luxury hotel and day spa, an enclosed rooftop swimming pool and 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²) of meeting and event space. The 33-story hotel featuring 536 rooms and 64 suites became the tallest structure between Salt Lake City, Utah and Denver.

Ameristar also completed the acquisition of the Resorts East Chicago casino in East Chicago, Indiana from Resorts International Holdings in 2007. It was rebranded Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago in June 2008. An outdoor summer concert series promoted the rebranding, and featured Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and Reba McEntire.^[14]

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In 2010, Ameristar announced plans to renovate all of Ameristar East Chicago's 280 superior guest rooms and 10 luxury suites; and to add 100 rooms and a fitness center to Ameristar Kansas City's existing luxury hotel. The addition will complement the property's existing 184 rooms and hotel lobby, which were extensively renovated in September 2006.

In Massachusetts, where casinos were legalized in November 2011,^[15] Ameristar applied for the one gaming license allotted to Western Massachusetts, proposing to build a $910-million hotel and casino.^[16] It acquired a 41-acre site in East Springfield, a former Westinghouse plant, for $16 million.^[17] In November 2012, however, Ameristar withdrew its proposal in the face of competing bids from MGM Resorts International and Penn National Gaming,^[18] saying that city officials were more likely to endorse a downtown casino.^[19]

In March 2012, Ameristar agreed to acquire Creative Casinos, developer of the proposed Mojito Pointe casino resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for $32.5 million.^[20] Ameristar planned to spend at least $500 million on the resort, and to open it in mid-2014.

Philanthropy[edit]

Following the death of Craig H. Neilsen, his estate endowed the foundation in his name. Ameristar regularly partners with the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation to support the rehabilitation of individuals suffering from spinal cord injuries and disease. Ray H. Neilsen serves as Chairman, and Co-Trustee with Kanofsky.^[21] In addition, Ameristar was one of the first companies to help fund research at the Nevada Cancer Institute by making a $500,000 donation in 2004.

Ameristar Casino Kansas City Layoffs Today

Ameristar also sponsors an active workplace giving campaign known as Ameristar Cares. In 2012, the company and its employees raised almost $7 million for charitable organizations.^[12]

Financial[edit]

Although the current economic recession has hurt the financial performance of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, Ameristar and other regional casino operators have fared better, as customers opt for gaming and entertainment destinations closer to home.^[22][23]

Ameristar's properties in Kansas City and St. Charles, Missouri, and Black Hawk, Colorado, benefitted from casino-related regulatory reform approved by voters in 2008-09. In Missouri, voters repealed the state’s loss limit, which had capped players’ purchases of table game chips and slot machine credits at $500 every two hours. In Black Hawk, voters approved a measure that increased betting limits and operating hours, and added the games of craps and roulette.^[23][24]

Casinos[edit]

Ameristar’s properties at the time it was acquired were:^[12]

• Ameristar Casino Council Bluffs — Council Bluffs, Iowa
• Ameristar Casino Hotel East Chicago — East Chicago, Indiana
• Ameristar Casino Vicksburg — Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City — Kansas City, Missouri
• Ameristar Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk — Black Hawk, Colorado
• Ameristar Casino Resort Spa Lake Charles — Lake Charles, Louisiana (under construction)
• Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles — St. Charles, Missouri
• Cactus Petes Resort Casino — Jackpot, Nevada
• Horseshu Hotel and Casino — Jackpot, Nevada

Ameristar Casino Kansas City Layoffs Center

References[edit]

Ameristar Hotel Casino Kansas City

1. ^ ^abcAmeristar Casinos (ASCA) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest.
2. ^ ^abAmeristar Casinos (ASCA) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest.
3. ^'Company Profile for Ameristar Casinos Inc (ASCA)'. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
4. ^'Assessor Parcel number inquiry - search by location address results'. Clark County, Nevada. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
5. ^Hwang, Jeff (November 20, 2006). 'Ameristar CEO Craig Neilsen Passes Away'. The Motley Fool.
6. ^'John M. Boushy Elected to Ameristar Board'. www.casinocitytimes.com.
7. ^portfolio.com profile
8. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2008-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. ^Howard Stutz (August 14, 2013). 'Pinnacle Entertainment completes $2.8 billion buyout of Ameristar Casinos'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2013-08-14.
10. ^Howard Stutz (December 21, 2012). 'Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment to acquire rival Ameristar Casinos for $869 million'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
11. ^http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/05/25/news/newsbus01.txt^{[permanent dead link]}
12. ^ ^abc'Ameristar Casino Locations mychoice®'. MyChoice.
13. ^'Las Vegas News Breaking News & Headlines'. Las Vegas Review-Journal.
14. ^Potempaphilip.potempa@nwi.com, (219) 852-4327, Philip. 'Ameristar Hotel and Casino offers luxury getaway'. nwitimes.com.
15. ^Dan Ring (November 22, 2011). 'Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signs bill to establish up to 3 casinos, 1 slot parlor'. The Republican. Springfield, MA. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
16. ^Thomas Grillo (October 23, 2012). 'Ameristar places bet on Springfield casino'. Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
17. ^Anthony Fay (January 25, 2012). 'Casino co. closes on purchase of Spfld site'. WWLP-TV. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
18. ^Mark Arsenault (November 30, 2012). 'Ameristar drops Springfield casino effort'. Boston Globe. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
19. ^Dan Ring (December 4, 2012). 'Ameristar Casinos says Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno made false accusation about company'. The Republican. Springfield, MA. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
20. ^Howard Stutz (14 March 2012). 'Ameristar Casinos acquires hotel-casino project in Lake Charles, La'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
21. ^'Home'. Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.
22. ^Seetharaman, Deepa (2009-04-24). 'UPDATE 2-Pinnacle Entertainment posts profit on cost cuts'. Reuters.
23. ^ ^ab[1]^{[permanent dead link]}
24. ^'Stock of Ameristar Casinos climbs after thumbs-up from voters'. Denver Post. 2008-11-06.

External links[edit]

Ameristar Casino Kansas City Layoffs 2019