Deal will Add 50 new Jobs at Delaware North HQ in Buffalo

            Congressman Brian Higgins joined Governor David Paterson and Delaware North Chairman and CEO Jeremy Jacobs to announce that Delaware North has won the bid to build a casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack. 

            The casino complex will feature at 184,000-square-foot gambling floor and 4,500 video gambling terminals, multiple restaurants, at least 300 hotel rooms and a 60,000-square-foot conference center.  It has been reported that the deal will create 1,100 construction jobs and almost the same number of permanent jobs.  Delaware North expects to add 50 new jobs at company headquarters in Buffalo as a result of the Aqueduct deal.

            Construction on the project is slated to begin in early 2009.  The casino, adjoining restaurants and a parking structure should be complete in about a year.  The remainder of the construction will be done in phases with final completion expected within five years. 

            Delaware North beat out the two other bidders in part because it was offering $370 million in upfront money.  In addition to the initial payment, the state expects to receive more than $10.3 billion in revenue from the gambling terminals over the next 30 years.   

            The Delaware North Company was founded in Buffalo in 1915 by the Jacobs brothers who started out by operating a modest popcorn and peanut vending business.  Today the second and third generation of Jacobs own and operate the business which has become one of the largest privately owned companies in America with $2 billion in annual revenues and approximately 40,000 employees. 

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