During a hastily called press conference Wednesday afternoon, the Mayor, the Governor, a platoon of elected officials and representatives from Foxwoods Casino announced that the gaming interest is considering a move from its currently proposed Delaware River location to The Gallery at Market East.
"This is a fabulous opportunity for the city," Mayor Michael Nutter said.
Nutter and the others who took turns behind the podium said the Gallery location would be beneficial to both the city and to Foxwoods. It sits at a public transportation hub, in walking distance from the Convention Center and a slew of hotels, they said. It could rev-up the under performing Market East corridor, they added, and the casino could open at the site relatively quickly, bringing many jobs and much tax relief with it.
But neighborhood activists - from nearby Chinatown and other communities around the city - were unconvinced. Some were angry.
Helen Gym, a board member of Asian Americans United, said there was not enough consideration given to the impact the move would have on the Chinatown community - again.
"There have been no studies, no research on what the plan entails, but it's being presented as a very great idea," she said. "We do oppose this under these circumstances."
Gym was dismayed that neighborhood groups did not find out about the proposal until last night. "We certainly thought re-siting was a good idea," she said. "But basically, we feel like they just repeated the same bad process in a secret, back door deal." Her organization met with representatives from the city Wednesday.
City officials said they would be meeting with many community groups. Nutter said that the process would be open and transparent as City Council and city agencies examined the proposed site. He said two casinos will be built somewhere in the city, it's just a question of where.
Gym is tired of Chinatown being the where. "Thirty years of urban renewal have been forced upon a tiny residential neighborhood," she said, including The Vine Street Expressway, which cuts Chinatown in two, and the Gallery. "We fought off a stadium and a prison."
Terry Gillen, Nutter's point person on casinos, said the city does not have to say yes to the Gallery. It could say no, or yes with certain conditions, and that means it will have much more say in the process than it would have at the old site (Reed Street), she said.
"What we're discussing is only an option," Gov. Ed Rendell said. But he made it clear that he wants it to happen. If it doesn't work out, Michael Thomas, Chairman of the Manshantucket Pequot Tribal Nation - the 30 percent owner of Foxwoods - said he would be willing to consider other sites. But Rendell jumped in to say he expected it was going to be this site or the original Columbus Boulevard location, to which Foxwoods still has the legal right.
Rendell said all other possible locations had already been presented to both casinos - and turned down flat. As he spoke, Thomas nodded behind him.
After the meeting, Nutter said that if The Gallery site fell through, his administration would still not support building on the Columbus Boulevard site.
Wednesday's news came after more than a year of pressure from neighborhood activists and the anti-casino group Casino-Free Philadelphia, some members of City Council, led by Councilman Frank DiCicco, and several state legislators who represent waterfront districts. After Mayor Michael Nutter took office in January, he and his administration said they did not want Philadelphia's planned casinos on the waterfront. In July, Rendell said the change in political climate in Philadelphia led him to join forces with the other elected officials to convince both Foxwoods and SugarHouse to move off the waterfront.
Officials - both from Foxwoods and of the elected variety - said The Gallery site is fabulous because Market East is a transportation hub. Regional Rail, trolley, subway and bus routes all stop there. This provides a way to get many people to the casino without cars and the traffic congestion and parking needs cars would bring, said Brian Ford, CEO of Washington Philadelphia Investors LP - which owns 70 percent of Foxwoods.
Traffic concerns about the river site were among the biggest problems the city and many neighborhood residents had. "This is one of the issues we have all wrestled with," Ford said.
Harris Steinberg, executive director of PennPraxis, has been among the voices urging a non-waterfront location for the casinos. PennPraxis is the practical arm of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and Nutter asked the group to analyze the waterfront locations. After analysis and a forum that included casino design experts, PennPraxis issued a report concluding that the casinos did not fit with the vision for the Central Delaware - a guide to the waterfront's future also drawn up by PennPraxis after a year of community forums.
"From an urban design point of view, it has lots of possibilities," Steinberg said of the proposed Gallery location. He, too, spoke of the benefits of the transportation hub, and the already existing hotels and parking.
But Steinberg said he could not say whether the site was the right one. "It's up to the city planning commission to determine whether it's compatible," he said. The process by which the city decides must be open and transparent and the nearby communities especially must have a say in what happens, he said.
The Market Street corridor from 11th Street east has been a "tremendous challenge for commercial and economic development," Nutter said, but the casino could help fix that.
Ford said he "can envision new shopping and new restaurant opportunities, as well as a world-class casino." He said the casino would be 300,000 square feet - somewhat smaller than the current plan - and would reside in the western part of the Gallery. Ford’s group is also in negotiations with The Gallery's owner to relocate some existing tenants.
Part of The Gallery's foundation was designed to support a multi-story hotel, and Foxwoods hopes to utilize that ability, Ford said. He said a design proposal should be ready in six to eight weeks, and the casino could open within a year after getting the necessary approvals. In addition to all the city permits, that would include a nod from the Gaming Control Board.
Foxwoods has spent more than $100 million on its riverfront site, but the governor and mayor said no taxpayer money would be used to compensate them. That's fine with Michael Thomas, Chairman of the Manshantucket Pequot Tribal Nation - the 30 percent owner of Foxwoods. An expedited opening would more greatly benefit the casino investors than anything else the state or city could offer, he said. "We understand from experience what dealing with a city administration when it's not in a cooperative mode can do," he said. Foxwoods successfully sued the city in state Supreme Court claiming that they were intentionally dragging their feet on casino issues.
"While there is no deal, there is a commitment of my administration to working with the Rendell administration and Foxwoods to give legitimate consideration" to The Gallery site," Nutter said.
But some of the most involved activists were not celebrating the news that Foxwoods may not be built on Columbus Boulevard. From their perspective, the elected officials have just moved the problems they believe a casino will bring to another set of neighborhoods.
"They are once again trying to force communities to just accept this," said Debbie King, a board member of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association who has been heavily involved with the Philadelphia Neighborhood Alliance - a group of neighborhoods united to fight the proposed casino location.
Society Hill Civic Association board member and PNA member Rosanne Loesch said the new location may be closer to her neighborhood than the old one was, and would also be close to Washington Square West, Chinatown and Old City.
"Our whole thing at PNA is that the process was flawed, and that we should have had appropriate input, and there should have been impact studies," she said. "This is the same situation. We are not in the business of pushing this in somebody else's neighborhood."
King noted that the new location was very close to the city's historic treasures.
Loesch said that despite the Gallery's location at a public transit hub, she feared cars coming to the casino would exacerbate traffic tie-ups along the Vine Street Expressway and 15th Street.
There was also talk of the possible Foxwoods move Wednesday morning before the monthly meeting of the Zoning Code Commission began. "We just heard about it today. It's kind of shocking," said Andrew Toy, a board member of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and a ZCC member. "We don't know yet what we're going to do."
Greg Pastore, president of Bella Vista Town Watch and also a ZCC member, said the Gallery is actually closer to his neighborhood than the Delaware Avenue site. Bella Vista is part of Philadelphia Neighborhood Alliance.
"Our position has been to support the neighborhood groups that are closest" to the proposed site, such as Pennsport. Pastore said he doesn't yet know how a casino at The Gallery would effect his neighborhood, because there are too many unknowns.
But from a planning perspective, the transit hub location could be a good thing, Pastore said.
Rep. Mike O'Brien has been involved in the push to relocate the casinos, but was not included in the Foxwoods discussions because the Delaware Ave. site is outside his district, in that of Rep. Bill Keller, who took part in the talks with Foxwoods. "Councilman DiCicco and myself have just been told about this in the last few days," he said before the press conference.
It's now possible that O'Brien could have both Foxwoods and SugarHouse in his district, which includes the Gallery neighborhood. After the press conference, Keller said he did not think it proper for him to talk too much about The Gallery possibility, since it would mean the casino was no longer in his district.
O'Brien said he would be directly involved with similar discussions that are supposed to take place with SugarHouse Casino, and he would be comfortable with SugarHouse suggesting alternative locations, too, in the way that Foxwoods suggested the Gallery.
At the press conference, Rendell said he did not expect a SugarHouse meeting would take place unless the State Supreme Court grants the city's request that it review its recent decision upholding that casino's right to build on state-owned riverbed land. The former city administration granted SugarHouse a submerged lands permit. The Nutter administration revoked it. The Court sided with SugarHouse in its decision that the permit was still valid.
O'Brien said he has been assured that the process from this point forward will be transparent - he expected that element would be discussed at the press conference.
He said of the Gallery site, "I think that it has both promises and pitfalls."
If the casino were part of a larger plan to deal with the "dead zone" around Market Street, it could work, he said. But "Chinatown is immediately adjacent, and we have to be sensitive to that neighborhood."
RONNIE
I believe this is an excellent move.
It will revitalize Arch Market,Chestnut and Walnut streets from 12th to 6th.With the increase in visitors
shops ,restaurants will flourish.Transportation is good.
Submitted by RonnieP on September 11, 2008 - 9:38am
Submitted by RonnieP on September 11, 2008 - 9:38am