Published April 2001

Club Broadway venture aims for ‘flavor’ of Vegas

Herald Business Journal Staff

For the first five years after he opened Club Broadway in 1993, business was booming, owner Allen Hemmat said. The downtown Everett club, which houses six theme restaurants and bars, was regularly drawing 750 to 800 customers on Friday and Saturday nights.

Then, casinos began eating into his business, luring people away with cheaper drinks, cheaper food and gambling. Gradually, Club Broadway was averaging about 300 people on Fridays and Saturdays.

“In order for me to survive and be able to compete with the rest of the casinos, I had to get a casino,” said Hemmat, who celebrated the grand opening of Club Broadway’s Big Apple Casino on Feb. 24.

The casino took the place of the country music dance club, which had become a money loser, said Hemmat, who also converted the sports-bar portion of the club into a pool hall and dropped Club Broadway’s cover charge.

On the ground floor, The Big Apple offers 15 gaming tables: 12 of blackjack and specialty games such as Spanish 21, Let It Ride and Pai Gow Poker, and three of poker. On the second floor, Hemmat plans to begin offering off-track betting on horse racing from Emerald Downs in Auburn and Playfair in Spokane this month.

Under state law, slot machines are not allowed at nontribal game rooms. Tribal casinos have slotlike games, but technically they are lottery machines, said Linda Arland, spokeswoman for the state Gambling Commission.

To give customers the “flavor of Las Vegas,” Hemmat said he has spent about $750,000 in renovations, including a 5,000-square-foot mural depicting the New York City skyline at sunset and a model of the Statue of Liberty, standing about 20 feet tall atop a pedestal, which is incorporated into a large indoor fountain.

Another $1.5 million was spent to buy a parking lot across Wetmore, which will add 65 parking spaces to the 32 spots the casino already had, Hemmat said, adding that valet parking for casino customers was in the works.

About 132 people have been added to the club’s staff, and the casino will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 a.m. Hemmat said.

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