Foxwoods' Unpaid Bills

Foxwoods fights Philly firm's claim for legal fees
By Brian Hallenbeck
Publication: The Day

Nearly $1M in dispute from failed attempt to license casino there

Foxwoods Development Co., an entity owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, is fighting a law firm's claim that the company owes nearly $1 million in legal fees and costs related to its pursuit of a Philadelphia casino license.

The license, awarded in 2006, was revoked more than a year ago by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

In a response to the suit filed last December in the Court of Common Pleas for Philadelphia County, Foxwoods Development denies it's responsible for $940,757 in fees and costs billed from December 2007 to May 2009 by the Philadelphia firm Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell and Hippel.

The firm claims Foxwoods Development's failure to pay the bills constitutes a breach of an agreement the parties signed in December 2005.

Foxwoods Development contends, however, that the casino project was ultimately pursued by Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners, or PEDP, which entered into subsequent agreements with the lawfirm in 2006 and 2007. Foxwoods Development and "several wholly-owned affiliates … were involved in the establishment of PEDP," Foxwoods Development says in the response it filed last week.

"From the establishment of PEDP and moving forward, FDC (Foxwoods Development) did not pursue the casino project on its own behalf, and the Obermayer firm was engaged independently by PEDP with respect to the casino project," Foxwoods Development claims.

Foxwoods Development has a 30 percent stake in PEDP, whose other members include Philadelphia-area investors. Company representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

The casino project, which at one time was to be called Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia, appeared to be dead after the board voted in December 2010 to revoke the license for it following a series of missed deadlines for the submission of plans and financial information.

With the Mashantuckets in default on loans and expected to minimize their involvement in the project, such gaming heavyweights as Wynn Resorts and then Caesars Entertainment belatedly surfaced as potential partners.

A state court denied PEDP's appeal of the license revocation in state court, prompting PEDP to ask the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to review the case. The court has yet to decide whether it will take the case.

Documents released last year by the gaming control board show the Mashantuckets sank more than $34 million into the project.