Name: The Provence - Tower Entertainment, LLC
Location:
400 N. Broad St., the former ‘clock tower’ building that
formerly housed The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com and
dominates Broad Street just north of Vine Street, would be converted into a
hotel. The casino, rooftop deck and parking garages would be built along
Callowhill Street, between Broad and 17th Street.
Estimated cost: $700 million
Gaming:
3,000 electronic gaming devices (slots and automated table
games); 150 table games (The casino must open with fewer than 3,000 slots, but
plans to later expand to 3,300)
Project size:
424,000 square feet would include a casino, concert hall,
shops, restaurants, a nightclub and event and meeting space.
Theme:
The French-inspired Provence's “sheer size, scope and
amenities” will be “not just a regional tourist attraction but one of the most
dynamic entertainment destinations on the East Coast” and an economic catalyst
for North Broad Street, the principals say. They say their development “is no
casino in a box” and will be “just one of the attractions” among the
entertainment, shopping and dining options at the complex.
The details:
The principals envision the complex as an entertainment
center that will spur development north of Center City and take advantage of
its proximity to the Convention Center, which is about one-third of a mile
away. They say the casino will be The Provence’s “centerpiece,” but will make
up less than 20 percent of the project’s total area.
Blatstein’s proposal calls for:
A casino that
Blatstein told the Callowhill Neighborhood Association in January would be
located on the second floor. The 123,000-square-foot casino, he says, would be
the only one in the world that visitors to other sections of the development
aren’t required to walk through. (The Market8 proposal is similar in that
regard.)
The Inquirer &
Daily News building will be redeveloped as a 125-room hotel.
The Provence plans
call for construction of a 120,000-square-foot “European-style rooftop
village.”
Sixty thousand
square feet of retail shopping will be added.
Eight restaurants
are planned.
A concert venue,
comedy club, jazz club, nightclub, spa, private swim club, botanical garden,
and event and meeting facilities are planned.
Parking garages
will hold 1,700 vehicles.
The principals expect 5.3 million gaming visitors to come to
The Provence each year; the development is expected to draw another 361,000
tourists who will also patronize the casino. They say the complex will cater to
conventioneers, high-income tourists, locals and others who don’t visit
existing casinos.
The principals say the complex will result in another two to
three million square feet of additional retail, residential and commercial
development within a half mile of The Provence, an area they say is “presently
underdeveloped.”
The site is located near public transit that includes
SEPTA’s subway lines, various buses and Regional Rail and Trolley routes that
stop at Suburban Station.
Impact:
The project is
expected to generate $12.7 million for the city and $148 million for the state
in gaming tax revenue in its first year, with $900 million in total gaming tax
revenue over the first five years.
The principals
forecast $457 million in annual gross gaming revenue by year five.
They expect
ongoing operations at The Provence to generate nearly $17 million annually in
non-gaming tax revenue, and construction will yield $19.5 million in
non-gambling tax revenue for the city and state.
About 2,500
workers are expected to operate The Provence.
Ongoing operations
are expected to create a total of 3,700 jobs in Pennsylvania, with 3,000 in
Philadelphia.
Construction is
slated to generate 6,400 jobs in the state, with nearly 2,000 in Philadelphia.
Who’s involved:
The Provence would be developed by Tower Entertainment, LLC,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of longtime Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein’s
Tower Gaming, LLC. A real-estate company also owned by Blatstein, 400 North
Broad Partners, LP, owns all four parcels on which the facility is proposed.
Blatstein’s other projects in the city include the Piazza at Schmidt’s and
numerous developments along Columbus Boulevard.
Tower will have Isle Philadelphia Manager, LLC manage the
casino. Isle Philadelphia Manager is a subsidiary of Isle of Capri Casinos
Inc., which operates 15 casino properties across the country, as well as an
under-construction casino in Farmington, Pa. The St. Louis-based Isle’s current
gaming properties are located in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Iowa,
Colorado and Florida. Virginia McDowell, Isle’s president and CEO, is a
Pennsylvania native and member of Temple University’s president’s Advisory
Board.
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