The Hammond Marina, home of the Horseshoe Casino, is getting a new name to honor former Mayor Thomas McDermott Sr.
The marina will be renamed the “Thomas M. McDermott, Sr. Hammond Marina” during a rededication ceremony at 3 p.m. Oct. 13 at 701 Casino Center Drive, with coffee and cake afterward in the Clipper room.
“If it wasn’t for Mayor Tom Sr.’s vision and wherewithal, the city of Hammond wouldn’t have this beautiful space and economic engine that has helped Hammond compete and thrive over the past 30 years,” said Milan Kruszynski, director of the Hammond Port Authority, in a press release.
McDermott took a calculated risk in the late 1980s when he asked the City Council to invest $23 million in the marina. It opened in 1991 with 1,000 new slips and the Milwaukee Clipper, an old passenger ship, to attract visitors.
The former mayor's bet paid off when the state of Indiana approved a casino license in 1996, partly because the marina was already there.
“Whenever I’m at the marina, I always think about what my dad did up here,” said Hammond’s current mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. “All the economic development dollars we have enjoyed as a city — in the hundreds of millions of dollars — wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have the casino and marina. We’ve got my dad to thank for that, and I think renaming the marina is a fitting tribute.”
Harrah's Entertainment, which has since rebranded as Caesars Entertainment, announced a $485 million expansion of the casino in 2006, according to hospitalitynet. It now has a 350,000-square-foot gaming floor with 1,800 slot machines, according to its website. The casino's total taxes for the month of August topped $5 million, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Caption: The Hammond Marina is 12 nautical miles from downtown Chicago. Its season is from May 1 through Oct. 15. (Photo provided on www.hammondmarina.com)
