The iconic castle-like silhouette of the Sheraton Nashua hotel, one of the first things travelers see when entering New Hampshire from Massachusetts on the Everett Turnpike, may soon be flanked by a significantly expanded casino and four new restaurants. A two-phase development plan that would add nearly 93,000 square feet of gaming and dining space to the landmark property is scheduled to come before the Nashua Planning Board on Thursday, June 4, according to reporting by the Nashua Ink Link, republished through NHPR.
The project, which comes with a new name for the entire property, represents one of the most significant casino development plans in New Hampshire’s history. If approved, the Sheraton Nashua would be rebranded as the Gate City Casino Hotel, an acknowledgment that the gaming operation is no longer an afterthought but the centerpiece of the property’s identity going forward.
The Developer and the Plan
Owner Delaware North, operating through its entity ARBI Farms LLC, is seeking both a conditional use permit and site plan approval for the first phase of the project. Delaware North is a Buffalo, New York-based global hospitality company with a portfolio that includes TD Garden in Boston and hospitality operations at major stadiums and airports around the world. The company has owned the Sheraton Nashua and the adjacent Gate City Casino for years, and this proposal represents a major escalation of its commitment to the New Hampshire market.
The current Gate City Casino operates at 55 Northeastern Boulevard on the same property. Under the expansion plan, the casino operation would move out of its existing space and into newly constructed facilities as part of Phase 1. The existing hotel ballroom, which had been the subject of an earlier and expired conditional use permit for casino conversion, will now remain as event space, with the gaming floor instead going into brand-new construction built in what is currently a parking lot on the south side of the hotel.
Phase 1, which is what the Planning Board is being asked to approve for the first stage, includes a new two-story addition that would house gaming operations, restaurant service, support areas, a new steak house, employee dining facilities, and a five-story parking garage with 1,275 spaces. The gaming floor expansion alone covers 65,900 square feet. This first phase is expected to be completed sometime next year, pending approvals.
Phase 2, currently planned for 2030, would add another 26,960 square feet of casino floor space and 425 additional parking spaces. When both phases are complete, the combined expansion would total nearly 93,000 square feet of new casino and restaurant space.
Preserving the Castle
One of the most consistent themes in the developer’s presentations to the Planning Board has been the commitment to preserving what Nashua residents and travelers on the Everett Turnpike know as the “castle.” The 357-room, seven-story Sheraton Nashua was built in 1979 on former farm and orchard land, expanded in 1990, and has served as a distinctive visual landmark for drivers entering the state from Massachusetts ever since. Its architectural profile, with its hotel-tower form visible above the tree line, is one of the most recognizable built structures along New Hampshire’s southern border.
Attorney John Weaver of McLane Middleton, representing Delaware North before the board, has articulated three goals for the project: maintaining the hotel as the dominant presence on the site, maintaining consistency between the existing building and any new addition, and using exterior lighting to emphasize the property’s distinctive design features.
Architect Derek Soltes of Montgomery Roth has told the board that the original hotel was designed to serve as the site’s main visual focus, and that the casino expansion and new parking garage are intended to complement it and serve as “supporting features.” The new additions are being built in parking lot space on the south side of the building, with parking space maintained between the two wings so that the existing structure remains visible to drivers on the Everett Turnpike from both directions.
By the Numbers: Economic Impact
The financial and employment projections associated with the project are substantial. Gate City Casino generated $7.1 million in revenue in 2025 and has produced $20 million in total since 2022. Under New Hampshire law, eligible nonprofits receive 35% of daily house proceeds from charitable gaming operations. More than a dozen nonprofit organizations submitted letters of support for the expansion project to the Planning Board, many citing the financial contributions Gate City Casino has made to their work.
Ernie Dellaverson, the general manager of Gate City Casino, told the board during April hearings that the move to the new, larger facility would increase the number of slot machines from the current range of 450 to 550 up to 600 to 700 machines. The expanded operation would also add gaming tables. Dellaverson said the casino would operate at the full hours permitted under New Hampshire Lottery regulations, which means 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily.
The expanded casino and its four planned restaurants would create 290 additional permanent jobs, according to the developer. The restaurant lineup is ambitious: a full-service restaurant with an expanded menu, a steak house with private dining rooms, a sports bar, and an Asian noodle bar. Combined with the existing hotel workforce, the Gate City Casino Hotel would become one of the larger private employers in the Nashua area.
A traffic mitigation proposal and a drainage and stormwater management report were submitted to the planning department in late May, providing two pieces of information the board had specifically requested after its April 2 hearing. Those documents will be part of the June 4 review.
The Planning Board History
The path to Thursday’s vote has not been without complications. The board first heard the full details of the plan at an April 2 meeting, where members informally agreed that the proposal met the basic conditional use permit requirements but said they needed more information on traffic and site plan specifics before voting. A vote was initially set for May 7 but was postponed to June 4 to allow time for the additional documentation to be prepared and reviewed.
The public hearing portion of the April meeting was not formally closed, which means members of the public retain the right to speak about the project at Thursday’s session. No one appeared in opposition at the April hearing, a notable detail in a project of this scale. The letters of support from nonprofits, many of which depend on charitable gaming proceeds for operating funding, reflect the genuine financial stake that the broader Nashua nonprofit community has in the casino’s success.
The developer is also seeking permission to begin excavation, site grading, and utility work separate from the conditional use permit and site plan approval. Under New Hampshire law, this kind of preliminary groundwork can be authorized independently, which the developer is pursuing because of a need to get the foundation work done before winter sets in.
New Hampshire’s Growing Casino Landscape
The Gate City Casino Hotel proposal comes as New Hampshire’s gambling industry is experiencing a period of significant expansion. The state’s 14 charitable gaming venues generated substantial revenue increases in recent years, and multiple projects are now moving through local permitting processes simultaneously.
A proposal to bring a new casino gambling venue to Littleton has revived longstanding debates about whether New Hampshire should expand charitable gaming into new communities and regions. The Littleton proposal, like the Nashua expansion, reflects the appetite of gaming operators for growth in a state that has historically kept a relatively tight regulatory framework around gambling.
The Hampton Beach Casino is also pursuing expansion plans that would add a concert venue and hotel complex, and the Brook Casino in Seabrook completed its own expansion project earlier this year. New Hampshire’s charitable gaming model, which ties casino operation to nonprofit support, has proven to be a durable political framework precisely because it creates a constituency of nonprofit organizations that benefit from the industry’s growth.
For more context on how New Hampshire’s gambling landscape has evolved, see our coverage of the Andy Sanborn pandemic-era fraud case, which touched on the intersection of casino ownership, charitable gaming regulation, and political accountability in the state.
What Comes Next
If the Nashua Planning Board approves the conditional use permit and site plan on June 4, Delaware North would be positioned to move quickly. The developer has indicated an urgency around getting the foundation work done before winter, which suggests construction activity could begin before the end of 2026 if approvals are granted promptly.
For Nashua residents, the project raises questions that go beyond the economics of casino expansion. The city is being asked to weigh significant new activity at one of its most visible commercial gateways: additional traffic, additional lighting, a dramatically altered parking and building footprint along one of the main routes into the state. The developer’s assurances about preserving the hotel’s visual character and investing in traffic mitigation will be tested against the reality of construction in a busy corridor over the next several years.
What is not in dispute is the scale of the bet Delaware North is making on southern New Hampshire. A project of nearly 93,000 new square feet, 290 new permanent jobs, and a full rebrand of a landmark property is not a hedged investment. It is a statement that the company sees Nashua, and New Hampshire’s Merrimack Valley corridor, as a growing market worth a major commitment.
The Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 4.
For related coverage, see our reporting on Nashua’s First Woman of Color on City Council and the Ad Executive Who Got There.
