Horseshoe Casino’s Outdoor Plaza; Seapine’s New HQ

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Construction continues at the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati site as developer Rock Gaming plans to turn a parking lot in front of the casino into a 1.5-acre outdoor plaza. It will improve the casino’s connection to its surrounding neighborhood, enhance pedestrian traffic and be used to host outdoor events. Rock Gaming will take ownership of the land this month and begin work on it this spring.

The three-sided, nearly one-acre, 160-space parking lot is bordered by Broadway Street, Eggleston Avenue and Reading Road. The county agreed to sell the land, and in exchange will get daytime use of 300 spaces in the casino’s 2,500-spot parking garage.

Rock Gaming also received a half-acre, 450-foot stretch of Broadway between Reading Road and Court Street from the city. The city will decommission the portion of Broadway that cuts between the casino property and the triangular parking lot as a roadway. It will receive 1.4 acres of land on the edge of the casino property to allow widening and straightening of Reading Road.

Rock Ohio Caesars is a joint venture between Rock Gaming and Caesars Entertainment. Set to open in spring 2013, the $400 million Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati has already proved to be a positive influence sparking community development in downtown Cincinnati.

In other real estate-related news, Seapine Software Inc. will build a new $7 million headquarters in Mason. The 50,000-square-foot headquarters facility will be located on Western Row Road. Seapine co-owners Rick and Kelly Riccetti made the announcement last week at a Mason city council meeting.

The two-story office building will be constructed on nearly seven acres of land near I-71.  Al Neyer will design and build the new headquarters. The company received a number of economic development incentives from the city.

Seapine was founded in 1995 and develops software for a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, utilities and game development. It is currently located on Courseview Drive in Mason and has more than 100 employees. The new headquarters will bring with it 40 high-paying full-time technology jobs over the next five years, with a projected payroll of about $11 million and an average salary of $80,000.