A handful of developers huddled in a corner of an icy, windswept parking lot south of M&T Bank Stadium on Thursday, getting a glimpse of the site the city hopes to turn into a vibrant slots facility.
The city in November approved the $4.1 million purchase of the 3.7-acre site on Warren Street south of Ostend Street from Six GS LLC, the real estate entity of Maryland Chemical Corp. The area is backed on one side by an undeveloped lot and by water on another.
As many as 3,750 video lottery terminals could be placed in the wedge-shaped piece of land, currently used as parking for Ravens home games. Representatives from the Baltimore Development Corp. conducted a brief overview of the site for about a dozen interested parties.
Several developers expressed concerns that the site may be too small to accommodate the number of machines planned.
“We’ll see, we’re going to let the market tell us that,” said Phil Croskey, director of economic development for the BDC’s western district. “The market will tell us what’s conducive to this site.”
Developers have been encouraged to come up with inventive proposals for the tight space, one that is visible from all sides on area roads and highways.
“We’re all new at this, as far as the folks from the state and city. We’re looking for creativity frankly, it’s a very visible location,” said BDC Executive Vice President Kimberly Clark. “There’s lots of things that can be done, but this is a site with no back door. So there’s lots of creativity needed.”
Industry standards seek 30 square feet per machine, meaning the space required for the maximum number of machines would require approximately three acres, said Jeffrey Hooke, a Maryland-based investment banker who has studied slots. But Clark said other facilities nationwide had solved the problem by dividing the machines up among multiple floors.
“That [space estimate] is looking at all one floor, that’s looking at an Indian reservation with tons of land,” Clark said. “That’s not looking at creativity.”
Also, the intended parking site is several blocks from the facility location, a problem that Hooke said could become a “non-starter.”
“You’re not going throw up a $150 million casino until you know your parking situation,” he said. “I think this casino is going to be really popularÉbut a developer’s not going sink a lot of money in until the parking’s figured out.”
