The gaming machines are readied at Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh's North Shore. It opens today. Neil Bluhm, the Chicago billionaire who took ownership of Rivers a year ago, is majority owner of the SugarHouse Casino planned for Philadelphia.
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Riverside gaming arrives in Pittsburgh
Gambling has arrived in a big city in Pa., but the Ohio River is the backdrop. Philadelphia is still waiting for its first casino.
PITTSBURGH - Gambling debuts here today with the opening of a $780 million gambling hall on the North Shore, adding to Pittsburgh's steady makeover from grit to glitz.
The opening of the Rivers Casino makes Pittsburgh the largest city to date to have a casino in revenue-hungry, gambling-happy Pennsylvania. That designation could have belonged to Philadelphia, which might be a year or more away from having a casino even though two have been approved since December 2006.
Rivers Casino features a glass facade overlooking the Ohio River, a limestone step amphitheater leading to a boat dock on the water with seating for 1,200, and river trails with public access for bikers and joggers.
Unlike Philadelphia, where development was suspended for a time by high-level angst over surrendering Delaware River waterfront to gambling venues, Rivers was placed on one of Pittsburgh's most treasured pieces of real estate.
Philadelphians should take note of this, says the developer of Rivers Casino, because Philly's yet-to-be-built waterfront casino will also take full advantage of its location.
"There are similarities," said Neil Bluhm, the Chicago billionaire who took ownership of Rivers Casino a year ago, and is also majority owner of the SugarHouse Casino planned for Philadelphia. "Both have the same features, and both are on the waterfront. Both will be first-class projects."
Much of the redesign that was announced earlier this year for the SugarHouse project - including building its future garage over part of the casino - was influenced by the Rivers' design.
"With Pittsburgh, the slots floor and a lot of the back of the house is actually underneath the garage on the first level," said SugarHouse chief executive officer Greg Carlin, who is also CEO of Rivers Casino. "We redesigned the Philly casino similarly."
Both the Rivers and SugarHouse casinos also share the same restaurant interior designer, Floss Barber Inc., of Center City, and building contractor, Keating Building Corp.
The similarities, however, end abruptly. Pittsburgh shrugged off a bankruptcy that claimed the original developer, found the new one, and managed construction during the worst of the economic downturn.
Additionally, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County displayed an unwavering civic commitment to the development.
Rivers Casino launches with 3,000 slot machines, four restaurants, and four bars-and-lounges. It can ramp up to 4,000 slot machines by next year, and up to 5,000 slots by 2011.
The SugarHouse Casino was originally to house two levels, with the casino on the second floor. The casino is now being built on the ground level, just like Rivers.
"Ultimately, when we're done with Phase 1 with 3,000 slots and all of our restaurants and the garage, it will be similar to Pittsburgh's," said Carlin, a 1988 University of Pennsylvania graduate, of SugarHouse.
But there is another big difference between the two, brought about by the lending crisis of the last year.
"In Pittsburgh, everything was built together," he said. "But the world changed since Pittsburgh was financed, so we need to do Philly in stages."
Rivers' nine-story parking garage, which holds 3,800 cars, was built alongside the casino and completed a month ago.
Carlin said the first phase of the SugarHouse Casino, to cost $375 million, will not include a 10-story garage, only surface parking. He expects construction on the garage to start within six months of the casino's projected mid-2010 opening with 1,700 slot machines.
Bluhm said seeing the completed Rivers Casino had convinced him he made the right decision to stay on Philly's waterfront - despite enduring years of political, legal, and neighborhood opposition to his casino's being there.
The investors behind the Foxwoods Casino project - Philadelphia's second casino, which faced similar hurdles - agreed to move off the waterfront last September. They considered relocating the casino near Chinatown, before turning their attention to the old Strawbridge department store at 801 Market St. A Foxwoods representative said Friday that the casino was still negotiating a lease for the Strawbridge site.
