As CT Foxwoods defaults, revenue declines, parking lots are empty, Philadelphia Casino Glitter blinds reason.
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Twin Rivers, among others, serves notice that state governments cannot negotiate appropriate contingencies to protect taxpayers from insolvent partners.
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Foxwoods developers seek more time to show plans
Citing ongoing negotiations in Harrisburg to allow table games at Pennsylvania casinos, investors in the Foxwoods project have asked state regulators for more time to produce a plan showing how their proposed slots parlor in South Philadelphia will look.
Last August, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board ordered the investors to submit by today architectural and artist renderings, conceptual proposals, engineering plans and "other documents relating to construction of a facility."
Lawyers for the board threatened to take steps to revoke Foxwoods' license if the deadline was not met.
On Monday, with one day to go, the investors requested an extension until March 1, 2010, according to Stephen A. Cozen, a lawyer for Foxwoods. That date is also the deadline for filing a financing plan with the gaming board.
In an interview today, Cozen said the group needs more time due to uncertainty stemming from legislative efforts to write a new state law permitting table games.
Familiar rhetoric? Same words, different state.
The change, Cozen said, would impact both Foxwoods' design and its ability to attract potential investors, who "need to see what the final terms of the gaming legislation will be."
Other unknowns that could affect financing, he added, include the cost of a table-games license and the tax rate on table-game revenues.
"It was clear to us that unless we know what the law is going to be," Cozen said, "we can't finalize a deal with anybody."
In a statement today, Cyrus Pitre, chief enforcement counsel for the gaming board, said he expected the matter to go before the board for a full hearing "in the near future."
His staff, he said, was "thoroughly" reviewing both the investors' petition and the monthly updates Foxwoods has been under order to submit to regulators since September.
"We take the conditions that were put in place by the board very seriously," he said.
Three years ago, the Foxwoods group won one of two licenses for slots parlors in Philadelphia. But the project has been stalled by political and neighborhood opposition, turmoil in the credit markets, and financial problems for a main investor, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which operates the giant Foxwoods casino in Ledyard, Conn.
The Foxwoods group now has to find new financing for the Columbus Boulevard casino, as well as an operator to replace the tribe, Cozen said.
The largest share of the project is controlled by a partnership that includes the charitable interests of Center City developer Ron Rubin, New Jersey entrepreneur Lewis Katz and Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider.
In the petition filed Monday, Foxwoods' attorneys said the partnership has been "working with its investment adviser on a non-stop basis" to line up financing.
According to the filing, the investors have reached "substantial agreement" on proposed terms with "an international gaming company" interested in backing a "full-scale project on Columbus Avenue."
Foxwoods previously told the gaming board that it might have to install a temporary casino in order to meet the state's May 2011 deadline for having 1,500 slot machines operational.
Cozen said the group's ability to raise capital for the project will determine whether it pursues a temporary facility, erects an interim building as the first phase of a permanent structure, or proceeds with a full-scale casino from the start.
Paul Boni, an attorney for Casino-Free Philadelphia, an anti-casino activist group, described Foxwoods' request for more time as an attempt to pressure the state legislature to quickly pass a table-games law.
"They're trying to hold the legislature hostage," he said, "by saying, 'We're going to drag our feet until you pass the legislation we want.' "
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