A top executive at Parx Casino strongly criticized two
Center City casino proposals, saying they’d be “an absolute disaster.”
The comments were made by Bob Green, chairman and president
of Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc., owner of Parx Casino in Bensalem,
Pa., and a one-third partner in the Live! Casino proposal.
He spoke before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which
was in the third of three days of suitability hearings held at the Pennsylvania
Convention Center.
“The city deserves a first-class operator,” Green said. “I’d
like to escort you out of the world of fantasy — of roof-top pools and
second-floor gaming — and take you into reality. Either one of those sites
would be an absolute disaster.”
He was referring to developer Bart Blatstein’s proposed
Provence Casino and Resort, the one that plans a roof-top pool, and Ken
Goldenberg’s Market8, which plans gaming on the second floor.
Live! Hotel & Casino, which is proposed for 900 Packer
Ave. near Citizens Bank Park, is a joint venture between Cordish Cos., owner of
Maryland Live!, and Greenwood Racing, owner of Parx. They are a potent team:
Among casinos in the Middle Atlantic States, Maryland Live! is No. 1 in gross
revenue and Parx is No. 3.
The casino would cost $425 million and have 2,000 slot
machines and 125 table games, along with a 300-room hotel, five
restaurants-and-bars and 2,600 parking spaces.
Although there are five proposals for one casino license,
this week has clarified the competition somewhat. It was clear in Thursday’s
testimony that the principals behind Live! Hotel & Casino consider their
primary competition to be the Provence and Market8. Live! is one of three
proposals from South Philadelphia, with the others coming from Penn National
Gaming (Hollywood Casino) and PHL Local Gaming LLC (Casino Revolution).
Green, along with Greenwood Gaming CEO Tony Ricci and
Cordish president Joe Weinberg, took aim at several aspects of the proposals
from the Provence and Market8.
Criticism was widely varied.
Green argued that a Center City would “cannibalize”
SugarHouse (1001 N. Delaware Ave.), which opened in September 2010. Regulators
talked a lot this week about “incremental gain” — the creation of new business
vs. taking it from existing casinos — and Green addressed that.
“There would be no incremental gain [from a Center City
casino]. Either one of these would put SugarHouse in financial jeopardy from
Day One,” Green said, adding: “Traffic ... would be absolute chaos.”
There were barbs over opponents’ gross revenue projections,
traffic estimates and what they viewed as inflated projections of the number of
patrons who would come by public transportation.
“We are the only applicant that actually operates in this
market,” Ricci said, and took a jab at other applicants’ revenue projections.
“Unlike other applicants who are estimating, ‘guesstimating’ and to some extent
guessing, we know.”
Live! estimates that gross revenue at the casino would be
$296 million in the first full year and $344 million by year five. By
comparison, Provence estimated that gross revenue would be $475 million by 2019
and Market8 estimates gross revenue of $518 million.
“We’ve built six casinos from the ground up. Those that have
done it and done it successfully should be a litmus test. Parx is No. 1 in
Pennsylvania and Maryland Live! is No. 1 in the mid-Atlantic,” Weinberg said,
adding that its proposed casino would complement Cordish’s existing Xfinity
Live! site in the stadium complex.
Green also said that Greenwood Racing has invested $600
million in Parx, which opened with a temporary site in 2006 and a permanent
casino in 2009. It created 2,000 new jobs he said, adding, “without tax breaks
or subsidies.”
All five applicants have had their say. In coming months,
the seven Gaming Control Board members will have theirs.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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