Petersburg Told Va. Lawmakers Bally’s Would Be Its Casino Partner Before Picking Cordish

The Petersburg Campaign City Council on Wednesday evening proclaimed The Cordish Companies as its gambling casino evolution partner. The announcement surprised many, as the Old Dominion urban center had only if late completed a Request for Proposal (RFP) that seemingly began the competitive bidding process.

Petersburg administration officials were criticized in 2022 when the council seemingly hand-picked Cordish, the Baltimore-based society that runs Live!-branded casinos and amusement districts crossways the country. Petersburg sworn to a greater extent transparentness this clip around, but the Virginia Mercury has found grounds suggesting that practically of the physical process remained completed behindhand closed in(p) doors.

The Mercury’s probe into the thing found a varsity letter addressed to Bally’s Corporation signed by Petersburg Campaign City Manager Gospel According to John Altman Jr. that was to inform the Rhode Island-based gambling casino company that it would live elect for the Petersburg project. However, the varsity letter was never sent to Bally’s but was only when referred to the Old Dominion State General Assembly.

A Petersburg Campaign council representative told the media aggroup that the varsity letter was requested by land lawmakers who said the gambling casino note to denominate the townsfolk for a gambling casino permission wouldn’t displace forrard without such a developer seamed up.

Transparency Troubles

In the unmailed missive to Bally’s, Altman wrote of the city’s purport to displace forrad with the cassino firm.

“This conclusion on the parting of the Petersburg City Council is the termination of an extensive vetting process,” Altman wrote. Altman signed the document on Apr 17.

A calendar week later, Petersburg Campaign proclaimed Cordish as its gambling casino partner. City officials left Wed night’s get together without addressing the media.

A resolving the metropolis council nem con approved endorsing Cordish explains that Bally’s was only a tentative pick.

On April 16, 2024 (the twenty-four hour period before SB628 was considered and enacted), a letter of the alphabet of purport was received by the City Manager’s Office to continue with Bally’s as the City’s preferred gambling casino gaming manipulator with a exact that the City signalise the varsity letter of purport or human face the banknote beingness voted down pat(p) or indefinitely tabled,” the resolve read. SB628 is the banker's bill that designated Petersburg Campaign for a gambling casino opportunity.

“In enjoin to enable the peak to persist in inward the General Assembly, the Manager signed the letter of the alphabet of intent but returned it only [to] the archetype transmitter (not Bally’s), and Council did not formally endorse or officially authorize the City Manager to execute the alphabetic character of intent.”

The resolution goes on to explain that ii main(a) consultants who reviewed the RFPs concluded that Cordish presented the topper casino blueprint. Bally’s confirmed to the Mercury that it never received the letter of the alphabet of intent from Altman.

Questions Remain

It’s unclear wherefore Petersburg didn’t simply figure Cordish as its tentative casino partner when pressed by nation lawmakers for a alphabetic character of intent. Cordish has remained interested inwards edifice Petersburg a $1.4 one million million mixed-use development anchored past a resort hotel called Live! Casino & Hotel Old Dominion for to a greater extent than 2 years.

While there’s no concrete evidence to shew such a claim, Petersburg ab initio citing Bally’s power hold been the city’s try to show up it was considering from each one RFP exhaustively and not streamlining its Cordish plectrum again.

Bally’s presumably was a longshot inward Petersburg, as the companionship is cladding funding issues in edifice its $1.1 1000000000 integrated resort gambling casino in downtown Chicago. Bally’s has faced several recent credit entry downgrades and is amid a takeover travail by sidestep fund Standard General.

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