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The resort, which includes an 18-hole golf course, 58,000 square-foot casino, 200-room hotel, spa, four restaurants and a 1,200-seat entertainment center, is expected to open Sept. 10, 2006.

Chief executive officer Dan Kehl said the project has a budget of $147 million.

Some $60 million of the total budget will go to construction costs.

About 120 construction workers now are working on finishing the hotel's five-story structure and laying the foundation for the attached casino, restaurants and entertainment center.

"Our idea is to get it all enclosed by January," general manager Joe Massa said.

Kehl said that after the structures were enclosed, as many as 400 people would work on the interiors throughout the winter.

Yates-Silverman, a Las Vegas-based interior design firm that worked on several Las Vegas casinos including New York New York, Paris and Caesars Palace, created designs for the Riverside casino.

Plans call for what Kehl described as a "great, spectacular lobby with a wall of water."

Touring the construction site, it was clear Kehl was excited about the way his project was shaping up.

"This is like everything you've always worked for and hoped to do," he said. "I've never done anything like this in my life."

Kehl has been involved in other casinos in Iowa, including working on the start-up of Catfish Bend in Fort Madison.

But there still are headaches.

Project leaders want the city of Riverside to close a narrow gravel road that divides the golf course.

Walnut Avenue, which turns into Harry's Road in Johnson County, is speckled with a few houses.

Johnson County Supervisor Mike Lehman estimated that 30 cars travel the road every day.

The Riverside City Council voted 5--0 in August against closing the road.

But Kehl said he's heard from residents on Walnut Avenue who want it closed.

"It's up to Riverside to decide if we're going to be a casino with a golf course or are we going to be a resort?" Kehl said. "If the road's not closed, it will be a nice golf course, but it's not going to be the caliber we'd like."

Kehl said closing the road would allow for a green within one of two retention ponds leading into the parking lot and other big ideas.

"It changes the whole project significantly," he said.

Riverside Mayor Bill Poch said casino leaders haven't contacted him about trying again to close the road.

"They have not said one thing to us about it," he said.

He said the council voted against the measure because it didn't think the casino leaders presented an adequate plan or enough specific details.

"I can't say how the council would rule if a better or more logical proposal were brought forward," Poch said.

The city and the casino also have to work out details of a new wastewater treatment plant, which would serve the city and the casino and likely would be funded by a Tax Incremental Financing agreement with Washington County.

Under a TIF district, property taxes continue to be collected on a designated district, but taxes generated by improvements are redirected toward repayment of the bonds or reinvested in the property.

Bids for that $9.4 million project came in higher than expected this month.

Poch said project engineers have to re-evaluate their plans and find ways to bring the project under budget.

The wastewater treatment plant project also hinges on approval of the TIF agreement. A public hearing on the agreement will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Washington County courthouse.

Kehl said he thought the city's efforts to make way for the casino would pay off.

In addition to an increased tax base and more than 500 jobs, he said the casino would draw other businesses. He said a hotel and McDonald's already have been in contact with him about coming to Riverside.

"This is a major change for a rural county," Kehl said.