Baltimore developer Cordish Co. is teaming up with a prominent gaming industry executive to run gaming projects both in the United States and internationally.
The Cordish Co., which has been positioning itself to become a more active player in the growing gambling business, has formed a management company with Dennis Gomes, who has managed casino and hotel properties in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and previously regulated gaming in New Jersey and Nevada, where one of his investigations became the basis for the Martin Scorsese film Casino.
"He is clearly one of the top executives in gaming in the U.S., and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have him join us," Chairman David Cordish said in an e-mail yesterday. He added that he has known Gomes for many years.
Gomes, who announced the new venture, said he will be president and chief executive of Gomes + Cordish Gaming Management LLC , a Maryland-based limited liability company. No decision has been made as to where the firm's corporate headquarters will be, Cordish said.
The new company's first project will be operating a $200 million slot machine casino at Indiana Downs, a horse racing track outside Indianapolis that Cordish Co. announced last month it would develop and run for majority track owner Oliver Family Trusts. It was the first agreement Cordish has made to operate a gaming operation.
Cordish also is vying to build a casino and hotel at the Kansas City Speedway in Kansas with partner International Speedway Corp. and, if awarded, that project would also be run by Gomes + Cordish.
Neither Cordish nor Gomes would comment on additional projects the firm might pursue.
"We're starting the management company to operate casinos wherever we find opportunities, and it's basically the combination of my casino-operating background and Cordish Co.'s development background in both the casino area and the retail, dining, entertainment area," Gomes said.
One gaming analyst said the new company is likely to pursue casino resort redevelopment in Atlantic City, which is on the verge of a Las Vegas-style transformation. That strategy would make sense because of Gomes' success running casinos in Atlantic City and Cordish Co.'s strength in remaking deteriorating urban areas into entertainment destinations, said Joe Fath, vice president and equity analyst at T. Rowe Price Associates in Baltimore.
In Atlantic City, Cordish owns The Walk, a $110 million retail project.
