SugarHouse wants to put gaming license & land in one name to save money; Rep. O'Brien objects

SugarHouse, a casino planned for the Delaware riverfront in Fishtown, will ask the state Gaming Control Board today to help it consolidate its gaming license and land ownership to obtain financing to start construction.

SugarHouse filed a petition last month saying that its lender wants the gaming license and land in one name. The project's investors used one corporation to pay $50 million for the license and another to pay $70 million for the land.

They are asking to have the license transferred to the corporation that owns the land. Their petition says that transferring the land to the corporation that controls the license "may trigger a substantial realty-transfer tax."

To that, state Rep. Mike O'Brien says: So what?

O'Brien, who intends to challenge the SugarHouse request with his own petition before today's hearing in Harrisburg, questions why the state would help developers avoid a tax bill.

SugarHouse paid a $2.8 million realty-transfer tax in May 2008, when it exercised its option to buy the land on Delaware Avenue at Shackamaxon Street.

SugarHouse spokesman Dan Fee yesterday said the casino's investor group has not changed and already paid the tax.

"This is meant to address a technical issue requested by our lenders," Fee said.

Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, yesterday said the administration was still evaluating the SugarHouse request.

O'Brien also plans to challenge a potential change in the SugarHouse plan.

The investors, after years of delays caused by opposition first from City Council and community groups and then Nutter, submitted a plan to the gaming board in May to open an "interim" casino by mid-2010.

That casino would be surrounded at first by surface parking lots that would eventually be replaced by a 10-story parking garage. The investors also told the board, Council and the City Planning Commission that it would lease space on two piers next door for a 375-space valet parking lot.

The board's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, which this week recommended that the license transfer be approved, noted that SugarHouse is now planning to buy those two piers.

O'Brien said that change should require a new gaming application and public hearings.

Fee countered that buying the piers is not a change to the project's plan of development.

"Both the city zoning code and the [Gaming Control Board]," Fee said, "allow us to use adjacent property for parking to serve the casino until our garage is built, whether we own or lease the land."