June 06--OXFORD -- One year after the Oxford Casino opened for business, Casalinova Development Group announced Thursday that it will build an 80-120 room hotel with meeting and conference space and a family-style restaurant across the street from the casino.

It will replace Crestholm Farm, which is a beef farm owned by the Hall family.

Oxford-based Casalinova Development Group will partner with GIRI Hotel Management. GIRI is also building a Best Western in the Kittyhawk Business Park in Auburn.

In March, casino ownership announced the gambling operation would be sold to the parent company of Churchill Downs Racetrack, home of the Kentucky Derby, for $160 million cash. That sale has not yet been approved by Maine's Gambling Control Board.

In its first six months of operation, Oxford Casino saw more than $30 million in net revenue, according to state records. The one-month total for February was $3.9 million.

Open since June 2012 and the state's second casino, Oxford has 814 slot machines and 22 table games, and employs 420 people. It is the largest employer in the town of Oxford.

GIRI Hotel Management was founded in 2004. Among its properties in Maine are a Comfort Inn and the Best Western Plus Civic Center Inn in Augusta, an EconoLodge in Freeport, the Best Western Plus in Waterville and the Best Western Plus in Brunswick.

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