Local Developer Gary Kirke Still Seeks Central Iowa Casino

While 60 percent of Warren County voters on Tuesday rejected plans for a Wild Rose casino near Norwalk, developer Gary Kirke says his company is still pursuing plans for a luxury casino in central Iowa.

The central Iowa market is underserved, Kirke told the Des Moines Register, noting Council Bluffs has three casinos, and Dubuque has two. Central Iowa can support Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino as well as a second gambling operation Kirke told the newspaper.

"Our goal is to have a central Iowa casino, and we’re not going to stop with that goal,” said Kirke, chief executive of Wild Rose Entertainment, in the Register story. “Where that is, I can’t tell you today.”

LINK UP WITH PATCH: Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Have West Des Moines news delivered to your inbox every morning by signing up for our newsletter.

The estimated economic impact of the proposed Warren County casino, which was expected to provide up to 600 jobs, was $100 million, KCCI reported. Though Wild Rose was selected as the developer if voters had approved the referendum ballot, the project was initiated by Warren County Economic Development as a way to create jobs in an area where most workers commute to the Des Moines metro.

Last year Kirke's company proposed building a casino first in Urbandale and then in Ankeny, but both projects generaged sizable public oppositions and were shelved.

In September, Kirke and Mike Richards filed a request that could have led to the development of a . The site was roughly 85 acres north of Interstates 35/80 at 100^thStreet and Northwest 54^th Avenue, near the city limits of both Johnston and Grimes.

That project fizzled just one week after paperwork was filed to start the project.

The Ankeny City Council signed an agreement Oct. 29 with Wild Rose to help the gaming company explore whether to build a $150 million facility in town. But some officials and residents criticized the quick approval of the agreement and two weeks later the city let the company bow out of the partnership.

Some residents began a petition drive against the plans and started a Facebook page called Ankeny Citizens Against the Proposed Casino.

The $150 million casino project would have been built near the new 36th Street interchange on Interstate 35 in Ankeny.