A soft-spoken Canadian builder without deep Baltimore ties or much gambling experience sees opportunity in a deal that the biggest local developers chose not to pursue. He came to town last week to unveil his vision for a slots palace that he believes will pull in a half-billion dollars a year - an estimate that found a skeptical reception.
Michael Moldenhauer's venture springs from an unusual land agreement that would let him build on a highly visible parcel near the Ravens football stadium that the city had promised to another developer for a different project. The deal enhances the Baltimore slots project, adding momentum that's lacking at another prominent slots site, the Arundel Mills mall venue proposed by the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. That bid is mired in a local zoning fight.
When the city sought bids for the slots facility, it said the parlor was slated for a smaller, less attractive piece of land.
Moldenhauer, 43, said he pursued the land deal earlier this year as a "tactical move" to lock in rights to a choice Russell Street location for slots. "Anybody that was serious about Baltimore would be focusing first and foremost on the location for the property," he said in an interview.
While Moldenhauer is the sole investor in the Baltimore City Entertainment Group, which is the lone bidder for the city's slots license, he fields a team that includes two fellow Canadians with gambling expertise and a respected slate of Baltimore partners. Its local face is Michael Cryor, the man behind Baltimore's "Believe" public relations campaign who stepped down as state Democratic Party chairman to pursue the gambling project.
The group is still becoming known to city and state officials, but already it is fielding questions about how it suddenly appears so well positioned, and whether its financial estimates make sense.
At last week's rollout for the Celebration Casino, city development officials rejected complaints by Cordish and others who have said the Russell Street parcel appeared off the table. Officials stressed that all would-be bidders were told they could negotiate with Cormony Development, the firm that had dibs on the more attractive site. No one had to settle for the more remote parking Lot J, one block east of Russell, they said.
"We actually had phone calls from a couple of the developers, and we pointed that out to them as well," Kimberly Clark of the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp. told the state commission that will issue gaming licenses for up to five state sites.
