A rendering of the casino development Cordish Companies has proposed for Petersburg. (Image courtesy of Cordish Companies)
PETERSBURG – After a closed meeting that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Petersburg City Council abruptly voted Wednesday to pick Baltimore-based Cordish Companies as the developer that will have a chance to build a casino in the economically struggling city.
There was nothing on the council’s meeting agenda indicating such a monumental decision could be happening on Wednesday afternoon, and council members quickly left the mostly empty auditorium without explaining the move to the handful of reporters in attendance. Several members said “no comment” when approached.
Cordish has made several previous efforts to land a casino in Virginia and is the same company Petersburg selected during its first attempt at a casino in 2022.
One of five finalists considered by Petersburg this year, the company has unveiled plans for a mixed-use gambling and entertainment development that could total $1.4 billion over 15 years. The first phase calls for a casino, a 200-room hotel and an event center.
The project, being planned in conjunction with NFL Hall of Famer turned Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith, would be built in southern Petersburg at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Wagner Road if voters approve it in a ballot referendum expected to take place in November.
Cordish developed the Live! Casino & Hotel in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County and the Power Plant Live! Entertainment district in Baltimore, as well as two Hard Rock casinos in Florida.
The other companies being considered by Petersburg were Bally’s, Rush Street Gaming, the Warrenton Group and Penn Entertainment.
Because Virginia doesn’t require competitive bidding for casino projects, there was an unusual amount of political drama surrounding the Petersburg plan.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made revitalizing the majority-Black city south of Richmond one of his key initiatives, a focus that has caused friction between some Petersburg officials and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly. Democratic lawmakers have also prioritized a role for organized labor in new economic development projects and have seemed particularly interested in whether Petersburg would or wouldn’t pick a developer on good terms with unions.
As legislation authorizing a Petersburg casino referendum made its way through the General Assembly earlier this year, lawmakers attached a provision requiring the project to be approved a second time. That gave the General Assembly flexibility to say no if state leaders didn’t like the way the Petersburg process was going, but Youngkin and the legislature agreed to drop the reapproval rule last week.
That move seemed to be the catalyst for Petersburg’s action Wednesday, according to Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, who said the bill advancing with hurdles cleared away “allows Petersburg to be an eligible host city and move toward a referendum for a casino.”
“As a result, the city had the responsibility for the next steps which included the selection of an operator, which they have formally now done,” Aird said.
Aird hosted a community meeting in Petersburg on April 14 at which the five casino finalists presented their plans to the public and pitched the community on why their company would be the best fit.
Unite Here, a hospitality and casino workers’ union that has clashed with Cordish in the past, endorsed Aird’s bid for the Virginia Senate last year. Workers Vote, a PAC affiliated with Unite Here, contributed more than $800,000 to Aird’s campaign in 2023. That money, almost all of which was listed as in-kind contributions, covered campaign gear, literature, canvasser housing, salaries and benefits, travel expenses, car rentals and other “general expenses,” according to campaign finance records.
The union celebrated Aird’s primary win over former Sen. Joe Morrissey, saying in a news release last June that its members and their supporters had knocked on more than 65,000 doors for Aird.
Unite Here had previously opposed the Petersburg project when the city selected Cordish as its casino developer due to the company’s agreement with a different union, Seafarers Entertainment & Allied Trades Union, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Both Bally’s and Rush Street Gaming emphasized their relationships with Unite Here during their presentations in Petersburg.
The Petersburg City Council gave no advance warning it was selecting a casino operator Wednesday. The agenda only listed a closed session for the purposes of discussing legal matters, including the casino approval process and public procurement law.
When the council returned to open session, the body voted unanimously to add a resolution to the agenda canceling the request for casino proposals the city had put out and selected Cordish as the chosen operator. That process took only a few minutes, with council members only reading the technical language of the motion and offering no explanation for why Cordish beat out its competitors.
Though some cities pursuing casinos have chosen to entertain bids from multiple companies, Virginia’s casino law doesn’t require a full competitive bidding process with neutral criteria for determining which project would be best for a particular community. The state has only authorized five casino licenses in cities chosen by the General Assembly.
Petersburg’s hopes for a casino got new life after Richmond voters twice rejected proposals to bring a casino to the capital city. While authorizing a potential casino in Petersburg this year, legislators also removed Richmond from the list of cities eligible for a casino.
In an email Wednesday evening, Petersburg Council Member W. Howard Myers indicated the council’s decision was based on a financial report that pointed to Cordish as the top pick.
“I am ecstatic about the potential transformative opportunities the Cordish Companies are to unleash,” Myers said.
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