Rush Street Gaming and Rivers Casino Portsmouth Select S.B. Ballard Construction Company as General Contractor for New Hotel

PORTSMOUTH, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2025--

Rush Street Gaming and Rivers Casino Portsmouth today announced S.B. Ballard Construction Company as the general contractor of The Landing Hotel —a $65 million privately funded development and upcoming addition to the casino’s world-class entertainment and hospitality offerings.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250725238850/en/

Construction is expected to start on Victory Boulevard this summer, and the hotel is expected to open in early 2027.

S.B. Ballard Construction successfully completed the construction of the 270,000 square feet gaming and entertainment complex, Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which opened as Virginia’s first permanent casino in January 2023.

“We are proud to continue our investment in Portsmouth and to be working again with a local company to expand our offerings for the Hampton Roads community and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Tim Drehkoff, CEO of Rush Street Gaming and Rivers Casino Portsmouth.

The Landing Hotel Portsmouth will utilize local minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses in every phase of its construction and operation. S.B. Ballard will cultivate and select prospective subcontractors and suppliers with an emphasis on SWaM and DBE vendors.

The Landing Hotel project will bring roughly 200 new temporary construction jobs to the region and 60 new permanent positions to Rivers Casino Portsmouth.

In addition to the new hospitality tax for the City of Portsmouth, the hotel is expected to drive additional local commerce and gaming, restaurant, conference, and event revenues by supporting weekend and overnight visits to the area.

The Landing Hotel Portsmouth will be an upscale eight-story destination directly adjacent to Rivers Casino Portsmouth—overlooking the property’s water feature. The hotel will have 106 well-appointed and generously sized guest rooms, including 32 expansive suites, among them two ‘super suites’ providing both indoor and outdoor space. A sophisticated Lobby Bar is planned near the reception area on the first floor, where two private executive board rooms and other amenities will also be available.

“This project represents more than just a new hotel—it’s a continued investment in Portsmouth’s future,” states S.B. Ballard CEO and owner Stephen Ballard. “We’re honored to collaborate with Rush Street Gaming and Rivers Casino on The Landing Hotel, bringing together our shared commitment to quality, community, and long-term growth. From design through delivery, we’re proud to be building a landmark that reflects the strength of this partnership and the promise of this city. This is another step forward in the economic development of Portsmouth and the region.”

The Landing Hotel Portsmouth will be independently owned and operated by Rivers Casino and Rush Street Gaming, which also owns and operates The Landing Hotel in Pittsburgh and Schenectady and Riversuites in Philadelphia.

EDITOR’S NOTE: High-resolution renderings of The Landing Hotel Portsmouth, courtesy of KOO Architecture & Interiors of Chicago and Rush Street Gaming are available here: TLH Renderings.

About Rush Street Gaming

Rush Street Gaming and its affiliates have developed and currently operate successful casinos in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Des Plaines, Illinois; Portsmouth, Virginia; and Schenectady, New York. All Rush Street Gaming casinos have been voted a “Best Place to Work” or “Top Workplace” by their team members. Rush Street Gaming affiliates also developed and previously operated the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Canada. For more information, please visit RushStreetGaming.com.

About Rivers Casino Portsmouth

Rivers Casino Portsmouth is a world-class destination located along Victory Boulevard, south of I-264. As part of Portsmouth’s New Entertainment District, the complex currently features a full-service casino, poker room, BetRivers Sportsbook, event and conference venues, premier restaurants, and more. Rivers Casino Portsmouth is Virginia’s first permanent casino and the latest addition to Rush Street Gaming, one of the fastest-growing casino and entertainment companies in the country. For more information about Rivers Casino Portsmouth, including ongoing career opportunities, please visit RiversCasino.com.

About S.B. Ballard Construction Company

S.B. Ballard Construction Company (SBBCC) is a family-owned firm founded in 1978 and located in Virginia Beach. When you work with SBBCC, you gain an experienced local team with well-established relationships with the entire Hampton Roads Region. SBBCC is proud of its partnerships within Hampton Roads and its seamless ability to maneuver through processes within every city. They have constructed over $1 billion and nearly 10 million SF of experience in the Hampton Roads area. They have helped shape the region's vision of providing a fun, vibrant, entertainment, and cultural community, with ample resources for its residents and guests. The projects SBBCC has constructed throughout the city have positively and profoundly impacted the residents' and guests' experience. To learn more about SBBCC, visit www.sbballard.com.

Coming Soon: The Landing Hotel Portsmouth. Construction is expected to start on Victory Boulevard this summer, and the hotel is expected to open in early 2027.

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark's foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “ fundamental disagreement ” remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and "people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.

Here's a look at what Greenlanders have been saying:

Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”

By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen told AP.

Laursen said she used to work on a fishing trawler but is now studying law. She approached AP to say she thought previous examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans are “often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds.”

She said during World War II, Greenlandic hunters on their dog sleds worked in conjunction with the U.S. military to detect Nazi German forces on the island.

“The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go,” Laursen said.

Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are swarming the seas around Greenland. Plenty of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that claim.

“I think he (Trump) should mind his own business,” said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.

“What's he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland,” he said.

Down at Nuuk's small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he attached small fish as bait to his lines. He said, “I don't see them (the ships)” and said he had only seen “a Russian fishing boat ten years ago.”

Maya Martinsen, 21, a shop worker, told AP she doesn't believe Trump wants Greenland to enhance America's security.

“I know it’s not national security. I think it’s for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched,” she said, suggesting the Americans are treating her home like a “business trade.”

She said she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officials met in the White House Wednesday and said she believes that “the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side,” despite some Greenlanders wanting independence.

“It is nerve-wrecking, that the Americans aren’t changing their mind,” she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would be sending troops to Greenland because “it’s important that the people we work closest with, that they send support.”

Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told AP that she hopes the U.S. got the message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to “back off.”

She said she didn't want to join the United States because in Greenland “there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses ... we don’t have to pay anything,” she said adding "I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us.”

In Greenland's parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament told AP that he has done multiple media interviews every day for the last two weeks.

When asked by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the chance, Berthelsen said:

“I would tell them, of course, that — as we’ve seen — a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation.”

“It is our country,” he said. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.”

Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report.

FILE - A woman pushes a stroller with her children in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament poses for photo at his office in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Fisherman Gerth Josefsen prepares fishing lines at the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A woman walks on a street past a Greenlandic national flag in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)