Cordish ahead of the game in slots fight
David Cordish does not think small. Ask him about his planned casino at Arundel Mills mall, as a reporter did the other day, and he starts by talking about the lessons to be drawn from “the revolution in Las Vegas.”
Explaining why he wants to put 4,750 slot machines next to restaurants, retail and live entertainment, Cordish said: “How long can you gamble consecutively in a day--five hours? So what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The answer: Go shopping, eat dinner and see a show. It wasn’t until Vegas figured that out that a seedy desert gambling town became what is by some measures the largest tourist destination in the world, with megamalls like the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.
“All we did the last 10, 12 years was follow that truism that Las Vegas taught us,” Cordish, the 69-year-old chairman of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., said last week during a conference call with reporters and editors from The Capital.
This is not a man lacking in confidence. Asked what he wants to do at Arundel Mills, he talked uninterrupted for perhaps 10 minutes. And the company is making big promises: $30 million a year for the county and $447 million a year for the state, for a total of more than $7 billion to government coffers over 15 years.
In addition to gambling, Cordish said he’ll add “highend dining” and live entertainment to the mix of stores and restaurants already at Arundel Mills.
“We’re going to up the ante there,” he said.
At Thursday’s hearing, Cordish officials showed a slick film touting their other “world class” casinos, from Louisville, Ky., to Hampton, Va., to the newest: Indiana Live in Shelbyville, Ind. Cordish also developed the Power Plant complex in Baltimore and two Hard Rock hotel-casinos in Florida that they call the most successful casino enterprise in the United States.
And Cordish turned seven blocks in Atlantic City, N.J., into “The Walk,” a 320,000 square-foot mall with a Ruth’s Chris Steak House and high-end outlets where he said “bums, rats and abandoned buildings” used to be.
There’s a Disney town quality to these projects, the numbers don’t lie. People like them.
Cordish says that residents’ concerns about crime, property value declines and traffic around Arundel Mills are a “kneejerk reaction.” Ho said studies prove crime goes down and property values go up around casinos like his.
Cordish Cos. official Joe Weinberg told the County Council the company will hire more than 100 security officers, including former state troopers and FBI agents. And Cordish said he’ll improve traffic with a free, 3,500-car garage that should alleviate the backups that now exist as people stalk for spots.
Cordish officials have held dozens of meetings with community groups in the neighborhoods around the mall. In filling 2,500 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs, they promise priority to county residents and “super-priority” to those near the mall.
Of course, Cordish has learned from experience around the country. He grew up in Baltimore, has a house on Gibson Island and takes his grandkids to the movies at Arundel Mills.
“This kind of development ... is dynamic,” he told us.. “It’s going to be changing. We’re going to think of something.” And you can bet when they do, they’ll still be ahead of the game.