Gambling may be coming to Bowling Green after all, just not in the site originally proposed by the owners of Franklin’s Kentucky Downs.

Rejected in May by the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County when they proposed building a satellite location of their Mint Gaming Hall on Bowling Green’s Ken Bale Boulevard, Kentucky Downs owners Marc Falcone and Ron Winchell are back with a new plan.

Through a new Las Vegas-headquartered corporation called ECL BG LLC, Falcone and Winchell filed in July a building permit with the city of Bowling Green that calls for a $6.2 million renovation of the former hh gregg store in the Greenwood Market Place shopping center at 2475 Scottsville Road.

The hh gregg consumer electronics store closed in 2017 as part of the retail chain’s bankruptcy.

Elizabethtown’s Sky’s The Limit Indoor Trampoline Park and Adventure Park announced in 2019 plans to open a location in the hh gregg space, but those plans never materialized.

The renovation of the 48,832-square-foot space won’t be as grandiose as the plans for Ken Bale Boulevard that were defeated in a 7-3 vote by the planning commission in May.

That application by a separate corporation called BG Landco, also headed by Falcone and Winchell, called for a development plan amendment that would have led to a gambling facility on a 16-acre tract across Ken Bale Boulevard from the Sam’s Club and Stockdale’s stores.

That application said the proposed Bowling Green facility would have included the slot machine-like Historical Horse Racing machines that have driven the expansion of Kentucky Downs.

The HHR machines, which were introduced at Kentucky Downs in 2010, have fueled that horse racing venue’s growth and led to a $25 million renovation and expansion that includes the 110,000-square-foot Mint Gaming Hall and its 1,100 HHR machines.

Like the Mint Gaming Hall, the satellite facility planned for Bowling Green would have included “upscale restaurants and bars and other entertainment and recreational facilities,” according to the May application.

Unlike the Ken Bale Boulevard proposal, the renovation of the Greenwood Market Place space doesn’t require any action by the planning commission.

Planning commission Executive Director Ben Peterson said the only requirement was a parking agreement with a neighboring property, which the new corporation has with Greenwood Mall.

Although smaller in scale, the gambling facility in the works in the Greenwood Market Place should be similar in many respects to the Mint Gaming Hall. Building contractor I-5 Design Build, which built the Franklin facility, is doing the renovation.

The expansion into Bowling Green has seemed a certainty since February, when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission approved Kentucky Downs’ application to expand its licensed premises.

That action came just days after the Kentucky General Assembly passed and Gov. Andy Beshear signed legislation aimed at legalizing the HHR machines that are Kentucky Downs’ bread-and-butter.

Senate Bill 120 changed the definition of pari-mutuel wagering to include betting on historical races, meaning Kentucky Downs could continue a type of wagering that has grown dramatically and helped the venue boost purses for its live racing.

Falcone and Winchell, who purchased Kentucky Downs in 2019, have been aggressive in trying to expand their horse racing and gambling interests throughout Kentucky.

They have entered into a partnership with Keeneland Race Course to develop a harness-racing track in Corbin and an HHR facility in Williamsburg.

Phone calls and emails to Kentucky Downs, Mint Gaming Hall and I-5 Design officials for more details about plans for the Bowling Green location had not been returned as of Wednesday morning.

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.