Awaiting VRC, ABC licenses, Roseshire plans fall opening in Henrico’s Near West End

The Roseshire Gaming Parlor in Henrico’s Near West End is planning a fall open date and this week announced plans to hire about 100 employees.

The parlor will host job fairs Aug. 15 and 16 at the Embassy Suite Hotel, 2925 Emerywood Parkway in Henrico, from noon to 9 p.m. to meet with interested candidates, company officials announced in an email.

Gaming industry veteran Jeremy Callahan has been named the general manager of the venue, which will be located in the Staples Mill shopping center at Glenside Drive and Staples Mill Road. He will oversee all operations of the $35-million location, described by company officials as a “high-end” gaming parlor. The facility will feature 175 historical horse racing machines (which allow people to place wagers in slot-machine style machines that use video snippets of previous horse races), as well as simulcast wagering.

Callahan most recently served in the same role for the company’s Rosie’s Gaming Emporium in Emporia and began his career with its parent company, Churchill Downs, Inc.

“I’m excited to take on this new role and lead the team at Roseshire,” said Callahan. “We are committed to creating a positive, lasting impact in Henrico by providing job opportunities, delivering exceptional experiences and giving back to the community around us.”

Roseshire will be hiring for positions in food and beverage, gaming operations, housekeeping/maintenance, marketing and player services, security, and others, officials said.

Before it can operate as intended, beginning on an as-yet-unspecified date this fall, Roseshire must obtain a license from the five-member Virginia Racing Commission and another from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. The VRC has not yet issued any information about when its next meeting will be held or what will appear on its agenda at that meeting, while an ABC official told the Citizen Aug. 11 that no date has yet been set for Roseshire’s application to be considered.

County officials opposed to planned Roseshire location

Roseshire is owned by Churchill Downs, which purchased Colonial Downs and its Rosie’s off-track wagering locations in November 2022. Its arrival in Henrico has been a point of significant contention for county officials, who are adamantly opposed to its planned location and who contend the company violated the spirit of a pending change to the county’s code last June by filing their plans just days before it took effect.

By filing those plans under existing Henrico County Code language (which permitted as many as 175 historical horse racing machines to be added by right in a business located on property zoned for B-2 business district usage), Churchill Downs avoided the potential of facing a public hearing.

County officials had moved to close that loophole in their code – and require a public hearing process for any business proposing such machines – upon learning that the company was considering the Staples Mill shopping center location, but the process of doing so took several months, and Churchill Downs filed its plans before supervisors voted to amend the code.

Company officials contend they simply followed existing law, and though county officials don’t disagree, they consider the company’s move calculated and unethical. Brookland District Supervisor Dan Schmitt told the Citizen earlier this year that Colonial Downs’ previous owner (Peninsula Pacific Entertainment) had floated the idea of a gaming facility at the Staples Mill site but backed off when county officials told them it was not the right spot.

“They said ‘We don’t want to go where we’re not wanted,” Schmitt recalled.

But Churchill Downs officials told Schmitt and others in the county that they were not bound by previous verbal agreements, he said.

The Staples Mill shopping center site is within a mile of more than 2,700 apartment units and a number of single-family homes, which County Manager John Vithoulkas told the Virginia Racing Commission in February make it a less-than-desirable location for such a facility.

“Henrico has never said no to a Rosie’s,” Vithoulkas told the VRC during its Feb. 14 meeting. “It was always that we wanted input on location."

VRC member agreed with county officials in February

A provision included in the state budget earlier this year would have forbidden the location to open unless the company presented a petition signed by 5% of eligible Henrico voters (or about 12,500 people) requesting a referendum on the matter and then that referendum subsequently passed with more than 50% of the vote.

Though it enjoyed bipartisan support from Henrico officials, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin struck it from the budget, saying that he didn’t think it was fair for Henrico to single out one business.

Schmitt (a Republican) and Democratic state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (who championed efforts in the General Assembly to require public input before Roseshire could open) have argued that giving community members a chance to weigh in on the plans is only fair.

The board of supervisors’ action last year to update county code was meant to close a loophole created in 1992, when Henrico voters authorized off-track betting in the county at a time when historical horse-racing machines didn’t exist. County officials have argued that since voters did not specifically approve the type of gaming that Roseshire is planning, a new referendum should be scheduled.

Although it would be surprising for the VRC to deny Roseshire a license, at least one member of the five-member board told Vithoulkas and Schmitt during the commission’s Feb. 14 meeting that he agreed with their assertion that the facility should be subject to public scrutiny before opening.

“I do agree that they should go through the process,” Stuart Siegel said of Churchill Downs and Roseshire. “I think that it's only the right thing to do given circumstances. I think from a material standpoint, we want to get along with your county, and this is not the way to set that forward, because there will be other issues that may or may not have the cooperation if we wish. Again, I'm an advocate for Churchill and for Rosie's as well. I just think we need to do it in proper fashion.”