Pennsylvania’s long-delayed Philly Live! Hotel & Casino project underwent a major shakeup on Wednesday as one of the joint venture partners bought out the other.
On Wednesday, the Inquirer reported that Stadium Casino LLC, the erstwhile joint venture of Cordish Cos. and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc, had requested the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s approval of a “corporate restructuring” of the project.
The report said that Cordish, which operates Maryland’s second-highest grossing casino, had reached a deal to buy out Greenwood’s interest in the Stadium project, which aims to build a $600m casino in south Philadelphia and a mini-casino in Westmoreland County. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Greenwood already operates Pennsylvania’s market-leading Parx Casino.
Joe Weinberg, managing member of Stadium Casino Baltimore Investors LLC, said Cordish was “excited to now immediately get to work on constructing and opening two first-class casinos for Pennsylvania.”
The Stadium folks are also seeking the PGCB’s permission to push back the Philly casino’s deadline for launching operations by three years to December 2021. But PGCB staff have reportedly indicated that a two-year extension would be “more than adequate,” suggesting a degree of impatience that the project has yet to start earning tax revenue for the state.
In October, reports circulated that all was not right with the oft-delayed Stadium project, which was awarded the state’s 13th casino license four years ago this month. At last month’s PGCB hearing, a Stadium rep sought permission to surrender the project’s pending online poker license based on the fact that the project was “in a bit of a pickle.”
