Cordish

As a Feb. 2 bid deadline for five Maryland slots licenses nears, developers interested in building a downtown Baltimore casino are indicating that the city's expectations of a financial windfall from a gambling project may be unrealistic. City officials have said they expect all companies interested in erecting a casino on city-owned land south of the Inner Harbor to pay at least $36 million in annual lease payments - on top of a 67 percent state tax on gambling proceeds. "It's a huge problem," said Kenneth R. Banks, a Baltimore developer who has teamed up with Hard Rock International Inc. to make a play for either a Baltimore or Anne Arundel County license.

Baltimore developer David S. Cordish revealed Wednesday that his company will bid to buy Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, which are up for sale by their bankrupt owner. Cordish's interest - and the emergence of a possible second local bidder - comes amid growing anxiety surrounding the fate of the Preakness since last month's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Maryland thoroughbred tracks.

Since November, taxpayers have been footing the tab to police club-goers and college students in the downtown Market Place area, an unintended consequence of a plan to stop officers from moonlighting as security outside city businesses. Bars and clubs that once hired uniformed city officers to work secondary employment outside the establishments have not been paying into a pool intended to fund an extra shift of patrol officers downtown, a plan meant to give police authorities more control over how officers are deployed.

Daylight-saving time begins this weekend. Did you get the memo? You have to "spring forward" and it isn't even spring yet. That's because, by act of Congress, daylight-saving time comes three weeks ahead of schedule. (It usually begins on the first Sunday of April.) If you think you'll have trouble remembering all this, let me know (410-332-6166), and my staff and I will give you a wake-up call Sunday morning. Some people worry that the early start to daylight saving will have Y2K effects.

Baltimore-based developer The Cordish Co. is planning a $250 million mixed-use development across from the Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, in a joint venture with a subsidiary of racing promoter International Speedway Corp., which owns the 71-acre site on Florida's northern Atlantic coast. The project, Daytona Live!, would shift from a lunch and retail destination during the day to a dining and entertainment district at night, with preliminary plans for 200,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 2,500-seat movie theater, housing, a 160-room hotel and headquarters offices for International Speedway Corp.

Local lender in Chapter 11 Fieldstone Mortgage Co., the Columbia subprime lender that largely shut down in the midst of the nationwide credit crunch, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company had more than $100 million in liabilities and less than that in assets, according to its Chapter 11 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore. Cordish takes a partner Baltimore developer Cordish Co. is teaming up with Dennis Gomes, a prominent gaming industry executive, to run gaming projects in the United States and internationally.

Plans for a prominent site on the eastern edge of downtown, in the heart of the city's entertainment district, have substantively shrunk since they were announced two years ago, according to Baltimore's economic development agency. Developer David Cordish intends to build only half as much as he formerly envisioned on land once home to a helium balloon ride that closed after a harrowing incident in 2004. Cordish had promised Baltimore Development Corp. that at the foot of a 250-unit high-rise of condominiums and apartments, he would build a Lucky Strike Lanes, an upscale bowling "lounge" - part of a network with 16 locations nationwide including Washington.

Baltimore's spending board approved a land swap yesterday that will allow developers to move ahead with plans to revitalize a blighted swath of the west side with new apartments, shops and offices. The approval paves the way for the long-stalled superblock area in Baltimore's old retail district to be developed by two teams - one led by a New York developer and the other a partnership between the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Cordish Co. But the city still needs to obtain a key parcel now owned by a retailer who has vowed to hang on. The swap approved by the city's Board of Estimates was agreed to in March by the city and the Weinberg Foundation, one of the biggest property owners in the renewal area.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Baltimore-based developer of its two Hard Rock hotel and casino complexes settled a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit yesterday, ending a 10-month legal fight. The terms were unclear last night, but the tentative agreement reached in March was for $756 million. Initial terms called for the tribe to pay $231 million -- in $10.5 million annual payments for 22 years -- and lend an additional $525 million to Cordish Co. and its affiliate, Power Plant Entertainment.

Baltimore's traditional retail district could begin taking on a new shape by next year with an expanded superblock development that would inject hundreds of new residents, workers and shoppers in the long-moribund area of downtown. After putting to rest a feud and looming legal fight that had stalled renewal plans, city officials, one of the city's biggest charities and area property owners said they can finally start rebuilding a deteriorating six-block area viewed as a critical link in the city's west-side revitalization.

Cordish Co. sells stake in Kansas casino project Baltimore developer the Cordish Co. has agreed to sell its share of a proposed Hard Rock casino/entertainment project at a Kansas racetrack to Penn National Gaming Inc. to focus efforts on a proposed slots casino in Anne Arundel County. Cordish announced Thursday it is selling its 50 percent interest in Kansas Entertainment LLC, a partnership with the owner of Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, to Penn National for an undisclosed amount. A subsidiary of Penn National had been competing with Cordish for a Kansas gaming license at another location.

Members of the state commission considering whether to grant a slots license to Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. expressed frustration Wednesday with continuing delays by Anne Arundel County officials in approving a rezoning measure that would allow the proposed billion-dollar entertainment complex to be built. The Video Lottery Facility Location Commission toured the site of the proposed slots parlor at Arundel Mills, followed by a public meeting and hearing on the Cordish proposal for the state's most lucrative slots license.

An expanded and relocated Baltimore casino on bustling Russell Street is expected to significantly boost the project's profits, and inject new momentum into the state's slots program, which to date has fallen below expectations. Baltimore's developers are vowing to build the state's first slot-machine parlor, which will be several times larger than their original proposal and which, according to gambling industry analysts, likely will draw a wider clientele with an improved downtown location.

Inside the Gilman School's Lumen Center, adults chatted while young children chased each other around the tables. It sounded like a family reunion. Whoops of recognition occasionally bounced off the walls as folks greeted one another. It felt like a family reunion. In many ways "The 25-Year Reunion of The Steve Krulevitz Tennis Program" was a family reunion. It had been put together by director Steve Krulevitz's 21-year-old daughter, Stephanie Krulevitz - with her mom, Ann Krulevitz acting as able assistant - to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Dr. Michael Feinglass Cancer Foundation.

A major national gambling company is exploring a bid to operate a slot machine casino at Laurel Park, officials said this week, as uncertainty mounts over a contentious proposal to erect a mega-casino at Arundel Mills mall. "We have been having some early discussion" with potential partners, said D. Eric Schippers, a spokesman for Penn National Gaming Inc. of Wyomissing, Pa., near Reading. He said the company's interest was fueled by reports that the Anne Arundel County Council was deadlocked on a zoning bill needed for the mall-side casino and entertainment resort proposed by Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. Penn National owns West Virginia's Charles Town Races and Slots.

The financially ailing owner of the Preakness Stakes, Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park formally withdrew Friday its proposal to auction off those assets in a bankruptcy sale this summer. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, attorneys for Magna Entertainment Corp. of Ontario, Canada, indicated they would still "explore all alternatives" with respect to the Maryland assets. The news came as a relief to government officials who have been worried that Maryland's horse-racing legacy could be sold out of state.

An expanded police substation is scheduled to open this summer in Arundel Mills mall, the site of a proposed slots parlor, Anne Arundel County officials announced Wednesday. Community relations staff, bike patrol officers and civilian police reserve officers, who are now spread over the department's four districts, will be assigned to the office, the police chief, Col. James Teare Sr., said at a news conference at the mall. The 2,000-square foot space - which is being lent to the county for free - will replace a smaller office that police use in the mall.

The Anne Arundel County Council was expected to postpone voting on a bill Monday night that would allow electronic slots in the county. More than 200 people attended the council meeting - most of whom wanted to hear a vote on the bill. Current county zoning laws do not allow slots. Council Chairman Edward R. Reilly, however, suggested that the council would hold off voting, in part because one councilman, C. Edward Middlebrooks, was unable to attend the meeting because of recent surgery.

About 250 people attended a public hearing Thursday night in Annapolis to express their opposition to - or support for - a proposed slots casino at Arundel Mills mall. County residents and businesspeople crammed into the County Council's chambers for the meeting, which the council held to hear public testimony on a zoning bill that would allow electronic slots in a county that does not permit them. While many residents of communities surrounding Arundel Mills have been outspoken in their opposition to the casino, many others spoke up at the meeting to show their support for the project, which could bring in $30 million in tax revenue for the county and $447 million for the state.

Baltimore developer David S. Cordish revealed Wednesday that his company will bid to buy Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, which are up for sale by their bankrupt owner. Cordish's interest - and the emergence of a possible second local bidder - comes amid growing anxiety surrounding the fate of the Preakness since last month's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Maryland thoroughbred tracks.