David Cordish, CEO and chairman of The Cordish Companies, has announced plans to expand the Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland in Anne Arundel County, for the third time since it opened in 2012. The Hanover-based complex, which includes a casino, entertainment hall, and luxury hotel, is poised to receive a new development addition soon. The nature and size of the expansion have yet to be determined.
While details were slim, Cordish told the Baltimore Business Journal the company this year is embarking on an aggressive growth pattern that will expand Cordish’s Live! brand across the U.S., fueled in part by a $1.8 billion deal in late 2021 with Pennsylvania-based Gaming and Leisure Properties.
One example of this expansion is the project with the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas. This development will cost $70 million and consist of 300 residential units. It will be called One Rangers Way. Other Live! sports entertainment projects by Cordish have already been established in cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis, to name a few.
David Cordish, CEO and chairman of The Cordish Companies.
The company has also installed its Sports & Social bar and betting parlor brand in several cities like Bethesda, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Troy, Michigan, and Cary, North Carolina.
“They have been calling Cordish for years and asked, ‘why don’t you put a Sports & Social in one of our great malls,” he said, as reported by the Baltimore Business Journal. “We held back, but we’ve now changed our policy and said to go right ahead and open venues in the best malls or best outdoor main street projects.”
Last month, the Cordish Gaming Group, one of three divisions of the Cordish Cos., announced several promotions, including a new general manager for the Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, Ryan Eller. The appointments were in preparation for what was described as “exponential growth” in the company’s gaming division over the coming few years.
Cordish said the gaming division today is preparing separate bids to develop new Live! Casinos in four unidentified U.S. cities. That is in addition to a project by another company division for a massive mixed-use complex in Pompano Beach, Florida, on 230 acres that once held a harness racing course. Cordish plans to build 5,000 residential units, a new casino in partnership with Caesars Entertainment, and retail and industrial space, he added.