Foxwoods wants to build temporary casino

Foxwoods Casino notified Pennsylvania gambling regulators yesterday that it would "seriously consider" constructing a temporary casino along the Delaware River in South Philadelphia rather than building a permanent structure in phases.

In a letter to the Gaming Control Board, a Foxwoods lawyer, F. Warren Jacoby, wrote that efforts to obtain financing had raised "unanticipated new issues" that may force Foxwoods to ask the state's approval of a facility that could be built quickly.

Foxwoods faces a tight deadline. Regulators have ordered that 1,500 slot machines be operational by May 29, 2011.

The project's investors had been thinking of an "interim" facility - much as SugarHouse Casino is erecting in Fishtown - that would serve as the first phase of a larger casino. By contrast, a temporary gaming hall eventually would be torn down and replaced by a permanent structure.

In his letter, Jacoby said Foxwoods was actively working to obtain more financing and had hired investment bankers from the Blackstone Group to explore both debt and equity investors.

"To a large extent," he wrote, " . . . the realities of the current national credit and financial markets are driving the initial phases of development."

He said potential investors had expressed a preference for building a casino without interim phases, though he did not spell out why.

To the extent that it is "not financially feasible" to develop an interim facility, "Foxwoods is considering an application to the board . . . for permission to build a temporary facility at the Columbus Boulevard site," Jacoby said.

The idea drew immediate criticism.

"A box surrounded by a sea of parking isn't doing gaming right," said Brian Abernathy, an aide to Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose district includes the Foxwoods site.

A spokesman for Mayor Nutter, Luke Butler, said the mayor had not read the letter and would have no comment on Foxwoods' intentions.

Jethro Heiko, a founder of the anti-gaming group Casino-Free Philadelphia, said a hastily built temporary casino would put the project at an immediate competitive disadvantage. Philadelphia, he noted, has operating casinos to the north at PhiladelphiaPark in Bensalem, and to the south at Harrah's in Chester.

"Because saturation is already taking hold, to be honest, it doesn't matter if it's interim or temporary; there are already too many slots in the state," Heiko said.

Of the state's nine operating slots parlors, three are in temporary facilities: two in grandstands at racetracks, including PhiladelphiaPark, and one in a separate structure in Washington.

In the letter to regulators, Foxwoods disclosed that it had yet to hire a design and construction team, even though it must submit architectural renderings for any type of structure by Dec. 1.

Foxwoods also must obtain key city and state permits to move forward. The letter noted that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed a special master to settle disputes or delays with city agencies.

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut owns 30 percent of the project, with the remaining equity split among 13 investors, including family trusts for developer Ron Rubin and New Jersey Nets part-owner Lewis Katz, and Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider.