Planet Hollywood may emerge as the owner of a Philadelphia casino if the city approves its application.
The company, known for its celebrity- and entertainment-themed restaurants, submitted plans for a $380 million casino on the northern Delaware riverfront last week.
The plans align with recommendations made by the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Taskforce in its final report, released Oct. 27. The task force supported the development of casinos on the potential Planet Hollywood site, paired with another site by the Schuylkill Expressway.
The same report advised the city not to build casinos at Penn's Landing or at Eighth and Market streets.
After examining 11 potential sites, the report concluded that the 2.8-acre site at Eighth and Market provides "inadequate" space and that Penn's Landing should serve "higher and better uses."
Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis in the School of Design, said the recommendation against building at Penn's Landing is not surprising, considering that as many as 11 attempts to develop the space have failed over the last 30 years.
"Penn's Landing really is a beloved civic place," he said.
The state Gaming Control Board ultimately holds the power to license the casinos, but the city has the ability to zone the land, thus influencing casino locations.
"The city's position is that these casinos are going to have a positive impact and we would like to be prepared to plan properly," said Micah Mahjoubian, the task force operations director.
The Gaming Control Board is accepting applications from casino developers until Dec. 28.
One potential developer, Las Vegas-based Ameristar Casinos Inc., withdrew plans to build a casino in Philadelphia last week, citing the state's high tax rate on slots revenue.
However, an application is still expected from Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which owns three Atlantic City casinos.
In its report, the task force cautioned the city and the state to reserve final judgment until seeing detailed plans from casino developers.
"You could have a bad location with a really good proposal, or you could have a really good location ... with a really bad plan," Mahjoubian said. "We first have to wait and see what the proposals are, and the city should evaluate each of the proposals when they come out."
An exciting possibility for casino sites is the potential for a well-designed casino building to enhance the urban landscape in its location, Steinberg said.
"If we were to really consider this a moment to create a piece of iconic civic architecture a la the Guggenheim ... then I think it'd be worth considering Penn's Landing," he said. "If not, then I think they've made a wise decision."
Donovan Rypkema, a lecturer for PennDesign, agreed that the new casinos could be valuable architectural contributions to the city, but added that most casinos are not.
"Most of these casino buildings are like 14-carat cubic zirconium," he said. "They're huge, but they're just crappy."
In addition to making site recommendations, the task force advised the city to eliminate tax incentives for casino development and to establish a city gaming commission.
The report also restated the task force's interim report findings, including the calculation of gross revenues at $668 million to $750 million in the casinos' first year.
However, the idea that casinos are fundamentally a form of economic development is nonsense, said Rypkema, who is also a real-estate and economic-development consultant.
"The only way governments get revenues from gambling is if their citizens lose more money," he said. "There's no other way."
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