The Cordish Companies and Bruce Smith Enterprise marked the structural completion of Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia on Oct. 8, raising the final commemorative beam on a 445,000-square-foot resort in Petersburg slated to open by year-end 2027. The property's food and beverage program — 20 restaurant, bar, and entertainment venues — represents one of the most ambitious dining buildouts in the Virginia gaming market to date.
The F&B Program
Three anchor concepts will lead the lineup. Sports & Social, the Cordish-owned sports bar brand present in 18 locations nationwide, will occupy an 8,000-square-foot footprint anchored by an 82-foot-wide LED screen. The Prime Rib®, which holds a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and a USA Today Top 10 Casino Restaurant designation, brings its fine-dining steakhouse format to the property. Pan-Asian concept Luk Fu, recognized as "Best Asian and Best Sushi" by Casino Player Magazine's 2025 Best of Dining & Nightlife Awards, will round out the flagship trio with a menu spanning Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese cuisines using locally sourced ingredients. Both Luk Fu and The Prime Rib interiors are being designed by Beth Bloom Designs. Additional local hospitality partnerships are expected to be announced ahead of the 2027 opening.
Scale and Economics
The resort is projected to generate $2.8 billion in economic stimulus to the Central Virginia region in its first 10 years of operation, including $504 million in tax revenues — $240 million of which flows directly to the City of Petersburg. Construction-phase economic benefits are estimated at $802 million, with $201 million in annual economic benefits recurring post-opening. The permanent workforce of approximately 1,600 builds on the 600 jobs already created by the temporary Live! Casino Virginia facility, which has operated on the same Interstate 95 site since January. The full resort is expected to add another 1,000 permanent positions spanning culinary, hotel services, gaming, and hospitality sales roles.
"With its scale, quality and breadth of offerings, Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia will establish a new standard for gaming, hospitality and entertainment in the Commonwealth," said David Cordish, CEO and Chairman of The Cordish Companies.
Supply Chain and Community Angle
The F&B and hospitality supply chain opportunity is significant. The resort's developers plan to source tens of millions of dollars in goods and services regionally, and a Local Contractor & Vendor Fair held Oct. 14 at the Petersburg Public Library is explicitly targeting food and beverage suppliers alongside construction and facilities vendors. The event is co-hosted with the Virginia Department of Small Business & Supplier Diversity, signaling a structured procurement pipeline for regional operators. The property will also house an approximately 70,000-square-foot event center capable of supporting conventions and large-format catering, a further revenue avenue for foodservice operators in the market.
The resort's dining footprint joins a growing roster of gaming-anchored F&B destinations along the East Coast, where integrated resort operators have increasingly used food and beverage as a primary traffic driver rather than an amenity afterthought. Live!'s playbook — deploying proven, multi-unit proprietary concepts like Sports & Social alongside fine-dining flagships — mirrors strategies employed at competing mid-Atlantic properties and reflects broader consumer-trends shifts in casino hospitality. For regional food and beverage operators, the opening represents both a competitive pressure point and a sourcing opportunity, consistent with patterns seen when similarly scaled properties entered the Mid-Atlantic gaming and foodservice market.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
