Outside, Baltimore's proposed casino would have an industrial look inspired by old warehouses in the surrounding area and a shop-lined pedestrian zone reminiscent of the Eutaw Street promenade at Oriole Park.
Inside, it would have "neighborhoods" filled with slot machines; a 400-seat buffet-style restaurant that would turn into a nightclub in the evening; a 120-seat "chop house" and a 100-seat main bar. Designed to hold up to 5,000 people at a time, it would be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m, seven days a week.
The slots facility would provide the full-time equivalent of 926 jobs with an average salary of $41,000, for an annual payroll of nearly $38 million. Construction would create 2,332 more temporary jobs valued at $122.5 million in wages and benefits.
All of this activity is expected to generate $391 million a year in gaming taxes for the state, revenues of $17.7 million to Baltimore, $3.3 million in casino property taxes, $2.6 million in hotel taxes and $4.6 million in real property taxes.
That's the developer's vision for "Celebration Casino," the proposed name of a two-story, $212.5 million, 3,750-machine slots facility planned to open by early 2011 on an 11-acre parcel off Russell Street, just south of M&T Bank Stadium.
Representatives for the Baltimore City Entertainment Group, the team seeking permission to build the project, unveiled their plans yesterday during a meeting of the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission, a panel charged with deciding whether to approve the license application.
In outlining their project, BCEG team members said it would transform an old industrial district into Baltimore's newest waterfront hot spot. "This will truly be Baltimore's place to play," said Michael Moldenhauer, president of BCEG.
The state commission, headed by Greater Baltimore Committee Executive Director Donald Fry, toured the construction site and held a public hearing Wednesday as part of a series of hearings on casino projects planned around the state. It previously has visited sites in Worcester and Cecil counties.
BCEG is the only team that applied to build a casino in Baltimore. It initially applied to build a facility with 500 slot machines but indicated it would want to increase that number over five years.
