Maryland Live! Casino Is a Big Success, So Philadelphia’s Leaders Plan on the Same Concept Winning in Philly
A joint proposal by Cordish Cos. and Greenwood Racing for Philadelphia’s second casino has met with disapproval by local officials. The $500 million plan for the Live! Hotel and Casino also met a trouble from civil rights activists, who charged Cordish with discriminatory practices at the company’s other locations in the United States.
Studio Casino LLC is the official name of the gaming company which proposed the plan for Live Casino. Studio Casino is a partnership between Greenwood Racing, best known locally for the Parx Casino in Bensalem (a suburb of Philadelpia), and Cordish, a Baltimore commercial property company with massive assets around the country. Outside of Pennsylvania, Cordish Cos. owns Maryland Live! Casino, which has been a big financial success in the region.
Cordish President Joe Weinberg said the Maryland casino’s success played a big role in the winning of the license in the first place. But when the two made a proposal before Philadelphia Planning Committee, the meeting was marred by critical reviews and political demonstrations. Despite one being a Philly mainstay, the partners might not have been ready for the dynamic give-and-take of Philadelphia’s local politics.
Location of Live Casino
The Live! Casino would be found in the district of the city where Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and Wells Fargo Center. Those are the respective homes of the Eagles, Phillies, and 76ers. The casino itself would be located several blocks north of the sports complexes.
The development would include 2,000 slot machines and other electronic gaming machines, along with dozens of gaming tables for blackjack, roulette, craps, and baccarat. Around the casino would be a number of restaurants and clubs. Next to the gaming area would be a multi-level parking garage built to house 3,000 cars at any given time.
Planning Committee’s Complaints
All in all, the plan calls for half-a-billion dollars to be invested in the construction process. Yet when the Planning Committee took a look at the plan, one member of the committee said the proposed casino would not meet the city’s zoning requirements on open space.
It was pointed out that the casino’s digital sign would have exceeded the city’s limits for such signage. Beyond the official complaints, the proposal is being challenged in the Philadelphia Supreme Court by two different groups, which lost out on the proposal.
National Action Network
More troublesome from a public relations point-of-view, the Cordish/Parx proposal team faced civil rights activists who were on hand to criticize Cordish. National Action Network, Al Sharpton’s civil rights group, held protests to complain about Cordish’s alleged pattern of discrimination at its Live!-branded gaming properties across the United States. In particular, practices at the Cordish casinos in Lexington, Kentucky and Kansas City, Missouri have been criticized.
Cordish CEO Zed Smith denies the charges, while several respected African-American groups have sided with the gaming company. The Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity published its own independent investigation in July 2015, which found no evidence of racism at the Cordish gaming complexes. The NAACP lent its support to the Black Clergy of Philadelphia’s findings.
Despite those endorsements, National Action Network has said it plans to block the casino’s development until the issue has been resolved. That decision prompted Zed Smith to give a public statement on the controversy, while announcing his own company would release the results of an investigation into the complaints by the end of the month.
Zed Smith on Discrimination
Zed Smith’s press release read: “We have 6,000 employees, and we’re not in the business of discriminating against anyone. This matter has been vetted by the Black Clergy here and the NAACP. They did a very exhaustive study of our history and our track record throughout the country, which we’re very proud of.”
The Planning Commission plans to review the Cordish & Parx development plan again on September 15. At that time, it is expected the proposal’s zoning issues and signage problem will be addressed. Whether a resolution of the National Action Network’s complaints can be accomplished is another matter, since both sides cannot agree on the facts.
Such is the way of inner city politics. It is likely whatever complaints get sorted through. Al Sharpton’s group might be fighting for special concessions to help the local ethnic minorities avoid the depredations of gaming addiction, or perhaps gain concessions on jobs. Whatever the case, the Live! Casino has until September 15 to woo the Planning Commission again, like it did last November when it first won the license.
