A major expansion of the Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland complex could be just around the corner. Literally.
The Cordish Companies, which operates the resort in Hanover, is expected to develop the land the company recently acquired next to the casino. It would be the third expansion of the resort since 2012.
The company has yet to unveil specifics on the project. But its gung-ho style of developing casino properties across the US suggests that its plans for Live! will likely be massive.
Cordish sold casino property assets in Maryland and Pennsylvania
Including Live!, six casinos operate in Maryland. Meanwhile, Maryland online casinos remain illegal. But considering the state’s gambling expansion in recent years, online casinos might not be too far away. Until then, brick-and-mortar casinos in The Old Line State remain the popular choice for Marylanders.
Live! Casino is the second-most popular casino in the state, behind MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill. Its annual revenue is around $700 million, which represents roughly 34% of the entire state’s casino revenue.
Cordish Companies Chairman and CEO David Cordish revealed the company’s intention to expand development at Live! Casino complex during a recent Baltimore Business Journal interview.
Late last year, Cordish Companies sold its casino property assets in both Maryland and Pennsylvania to Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust controlled by Penn Entertainment. Cordish, however, continues to operate the casinos and retain profits via a lease-back deal.
Cordish got $1.81 billion from the sale. That profit is now being used to stimulate the potential expansion of the Live! Maryland complex as well as many other Cordish endeavors.
Cordish looks to place popular sports lounges in malls across US
Plans to expand Live! will involve an 18-acre site that sits next to the casino. Cordish purchased the land, from Simon Property Group, which owns the mall near Live!. The Cordish Companies is in the process of relocating the land’s current stormwater retention pond by creating underground infrastructure.
An expansion project will complement the already large casino complex, which features nearly 4,000 slot machines and 200 table games. Live! also boasts a 5,000-seat entertainment center for concerts and conferences, as well as a plethora of restaurants throughout the resort. There’s also a 17-story hotel with 310 rooms.
The most recent renovation came in the form of a $15 million addition of Sports & Social, a sports lounge with food and drinks. It also features a FanDuel Sportsbook for in-person betting. The sportsbook also treats players to a number of promotional events throughout the year.
Cordish Companies is now adding Sports & Social lounges in malls across the country, David Cordish said:
“They have been calling Cordish for years and asked, ‘Why don’t you put a Sports & Social in one of our great malls?’ We held back, but we have now changed our policy and said to go right ahead and open venues in the best malls or best outdoor main street projects.”
There are now Sports & Social clubs in Bethesda, MD; Allentown, PA; Troy, MI; and Cary, NC.
Live! Maryland expansion par for the Cordish course
This imminent expansion at Live! is far from unique for Cordish.
In 2020, The Cordish Companies launched a Live! Casino Pittsburgh in the Steel City. Just one year later, Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia began operations. Now, the company is working to build a $1.4 billion casino resort in Petersburg, VA, as well as another smaller casino in Pennsylvania.
David Cordish told the Journal the company plans to build casinos in four new states in the near future. He said West Virginia was one of the states but didn’t reveal the other three.
The Cordish Companies, which has a mixed-use division, has partnered with Caesars Entertainment to erect a new shopping center and residential community in the area near Caesars’ Harrah’s Pompano Beach in Florida. They are also looking at the possibility of a $70 million housing project in Arlington, TX, as part of a partnership with the Texas Rangers.
