Gallery casino is city's second chance

Reposted from The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Inga Saffron

 

Yes, he can.

Move the casinos, that is.

Now the question is: What else can Gov. Rendell change about the flawed 2004 gaming bill, which foisted two immense and formulaic gambling halls on Philadelphia?

After years of hearing Rendell insist that, like it or not, two boxy slots parlors would be built on the city's majestic Delaware River, it was refreshing to have him concede yesterday that he is exploring other sites for the Foxwoods casino, the more intrusive of the halls. The leading option, at the west end of Market Street's Gallery mall, has real possibilities and should not be immediately dismissed.

The proposed relocation of Foxwoods offers a precious second chance to get gambling right in Philadelphia. It should be the starting point for a vigorous public discussion about what form an urban casino should take.

Throughout the siting process, Rendell has relentlessly maintained that one size fits all, whether the gaming venue is on 600 acres in rural Dauphin County or in a dense rowhouse neighborhood in South Philadelphia.

As the largest city in America to host gambling, Philadelphia deserves a casino tailored to its economic and planning goals - and not merely a cash cow for the state. This is the state's gambling flagship, and the casino design should reflect that.

Why, for instance, must Philadelphia accommodate two gargantuan slots parlors with 5,000 machines apiece? No casino in Vegas tries to cram such a huge number of one-armed bandits into a single building.

Does it make sense to build a casino in one of America's premier downtowns and not include table games? Poker, roulette and blackjack draw a more affluent crowd than slot machines, and consequently come packaged with luxury amenities. Why force Philadelphia to accept the lowest-end casino model in the business, a slots barn?

Rendell argued again yesterday that the state's gaming rules are not open for discussion. But his compromise on Foxwoods' location suggests that the situation is already fluid.

 

Less intrusive?

There is a good precedent for giving Philadelphia special treatment. When Louisiana legalized gambling, it crafted an operating license for its biggest, most cosmopolitan city. New Orleans' gaming hall is on a downtown street very much like Market Street, a few blocks from the French Quarter and the Arts District.

New Orleans' casino was designed with great care and sensitivity to its surroundings. It's a decent-looking building that could easily be mistaken for a concert hall. That's partly because there is no neon on its facade and the only parking is in a well-camouflaged garage across the street. Half the gamblers arrive on foot or by mass transit.

It may sound counterintuitive, but a downtown casino could be less intrusive than one on the riverfront.

Although the details are still being worked out, Foxwoods would like to take a vertical, three-story slice of the Gallery at its 11th Street corner, where the Burlington Coat Factory is. That store would most likely move to the vacant Strawbridge & Clothier building.

The hardest part will be determining what sort of face the casino presents at street level. Rendell has already vowed that the word casino will not appear on the facade. But will Foxwoods' sign be visible from Independence Mall? How far from the front door will the gaming floor be?

When Foxwoods opened its sprawling Connecticut casino, it reinvented the form by creating a full-service resort. If Foxwoods moves to Market Street, it should trash the industry formulas once again and create a boutique urban casino. Instead of thinking of itself as an urban version of Harrah's Chester, Foxwoods should position itself as gambling's answer to New York's Time Warner Center, with its vertical array of shops and restaurants enticing visitors upward.

 

Almost jubilant

One can quickly see why Foxwoods would jump at the chance to open a casino on Market Street. It's around the corner from the Convention Center, about 20 hotels, and thousands of garage spaces. Plus, the Gallery sits atop a transit hub that serves two states. The Philadelphia Flower Show has been successful in persuading its patrons to take mass transit. Foxwoods expects to do the same.

No wonder the company's officials sounded almost jubilant yesterday. They suggested that they wouldn't need to build an expensive parking garage. And they shouldn't be allowed to. The last thing the city wants is for drivers to converge at one spot on Market Street. Motorists should be forced to disperse to garages around Center City. Because gamblers don't all arrive at the same time, as they do for a concert at the Kimmel, traffic would staggered. Foxwoods should plow the savings from a garage into its architectural finishes.

The key, as always, will be the design details. The Nutter administration has shown signs that it will be more design savvy than its predecessor.

But it will have to resolve some very basic planning issues: Even if there's no garage, how will Foxwoods handle its valet service? Can Market Street accommodate a stream of casino buses? How can Chinatown be protected from the nuisances that casinos generate? Should the size on Foxwoods' restaurants be capped to encourage gamblers to patronize local restaurants?

Ironically, the Gallery site was briefly considered and then quickly dismissed in 2005 by the governor and Mayor John F. Street, even though some of the savviest people in the business, like Steve Wynn, argued that Market Street was the only casino location worthy of a big city like Philadelphia. In the end, Wynn saw the riverfront was the favored location and never applied for a license.

Now it looks as if Foxwoods could inherit Philadelphia's most lucrative casino site by default.

 

 

Foxwoods sets sights on Gallery at Market East

Reposted from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Foxwoods Casino has agreed to work with state and city leaders to move its long-delayed slots parlor planned for the South Philadelphia waterfront to the Gallery at Market East, The Inquirer has learned.

Two sources familiar with the agreement, struck between Foxwoods and Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter this week, said the plan was to revive a vision for a downtown casino built over the Gallery.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity before Rendell and Nutter were scheduled to announce the plan at a 1 p.m. news conference today at City Hall.

Although the Gallery was once considered a prime site for a downtown casino, the latest plan would still face a variety of obstacles, including potential neighborhood opposition.

Rendell could not be reached for comment last night. Nutter, Foxwoods, and State Rep. William Keller, whose district includes the South Philly location, declined to comment. A spokesman for City Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose support would be critical to the Gallery site, said he was not aware of an announcement.

The Gallery has been the subject of buzz ever since Rendell elicited a promise from Foxwoods last month to consider alternative sites.

In December 2006, Foxwoods won permission to build a $670 million facility on Columbus Boulevard in the Pennsport neighborhood. Construction, however, has been delayed due to the efforts of neighbors, state legislators and city officials, who have maintained that the site is too close to homes and would create traffic nightmares.

In some ways, the choice of the Gallery is not a surprise. Casino industry visionary Steve Wynn told The Inquirer in 2005 that he wanted to build on the Gallery but was discouraged by Mayor John F. Street.

The Gallery, on the north side of Market Street near Ninth, is joined with SEPTA'S Market East Station, abuts the Convention Center, and is close to the Vine Street Expressway and I-95. It is owned by the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, whose chairman and CEO is Ronald Rubin, who is part of a local group behind Foxwoods. Others include Comcast/Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, and Connecticut's Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Rubin is also a close ally and campaign contributor to Rendell, whose tax-relief plan depends on 14 casinos statewide, two in Philadelphia.

In July, Rendell agreed to ask Foxwoods to move as part of a deal with local state legislators who were holding up legislation as leverage against Rendell and Foxwoods.

Any development of the Gallery would likely call for a larger plan for redevelopment of the sagging Market East corridor, which includes the 2.8-acre parking lot at Eighth and Market, and the 3.7-acre Girard Estate property, a full block from 11th to 12th Streets, between Market and Chestnut. Those parcels were also cited as possibilities in the 2005 Gaming Advisory Task Force study.

Huge hurdles remain if the deal is to go through, and sources cautioned that Rendell's announcement would begin a long and complex process without guarantee of success.

Observers say Foxwoods will demand as part of any move a smoother approval process than it has experienced at its current site. That will require cooperation from surrounding neighborhoods, most notably Chinatown, which killed a downtown sports stadium proposal in the 1990s, and also Washington Square, Center City and even Society Hill. It might also raise protests for its proximity to Independence Mall.

Any neighborhood opposition is likely to be joined by Casino-Free Philadelphia, the anti-casino group that has helped stall Foxwoods with sophisticated politicking and protests.

Foxwoods may demand protection against lawsuits filed by any of three competitors who lost their bids for slots licenses in 2006.

Foxwoods and SugarHouse Casino - another planned parlor to be built on the waterfront, on Shackamaxon Street in Fishtown/Northern Liberties - won the two available licenses for Philadelphia slots parlors in December 2006, beating out three other partnerships. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's choice of SugarHouse and Foxwoods was predicated largely on their locations.

Foxwoods could also ask for tax breaks and/or compensation from abandoning the site on Columbus Boulevard, a former industrial parcel for which it paid $67 million.