A Big Idea

"A big idea and the intersection of great ideas," Market8 Casino has posted a, well, passionate video on their Facebook page.

I'm not sure I'd consider the Disney Hole and the Gallery the "intersection of great ideas," but I appreciate the effort.

Take a look.

Market8 Casino

Three state officials have endorsed Market8 as the city's next casino. Michael O'Brien, John Taylor, and Mark Squilla considered several presentations and decided that Market8's Market East location presented the best economic possibilities.

Indeed Market8's Center City address could impact the surrounding area, and if it's done well, could impact it positively. Certainly compared to isolated proposals similar to SugarHouse and Harrah's, Market8 has the opportunity to integrate into the fabric of the city. Even with SugarHouse's forgotten hotel tower promises, it was always an island venue with poor walkability. It benefits the city in the tax it generates for the state, and nothing more.

Unfortunately this is what the casino opposition wanted when they finally ceded its inevitability, a flashy suburban center as easily ignored as a thoughtless strip mall. But we shouldn't discount the opposition camp completely. Though they seem to have lost some steam in the last few years, what SugarHouse has become and how it continues to evolve, proves some of the opposition's arguments against casinos and shows us where the potential ills in the Market8 proposal lie.

It's easy to look at bland proposals for "another SugarHouse," even Xfinity's Sports Complex proposed casino, then turn to Market8 and see something flashy in a worn part of town, a neighborhood that needs this shot of adrenaline. But things too good to be true are too easy to see.

Remove Market8's exciting hotel tower and it's SugarHouse without a parking lot. If we've learned anything in Philadelphia, not just from casinos, it's that phased development is a developer's route to a permit. Once Market8 gets the green light, there is little stopping its team from offering us the lowest common denominator.

What's worse than an empty Gallery at Market East? A windowless gaming parlor across the street? It could be. Parx, SugarHouse, and Harrah's, their crowds caravan to the regions of nothingness to gamble and nothing more. If Market8 finagles its way out of the hotel component, isolated gaming will be squatting on valuable real estate. Of course it's hard to view the Disney Hole as a valuable chunk of land, but in five years we could be cursing ourselves for allowing it to happen, complaining that Market8's unsightly slot barn is just another Gallery.

It may be an obstacle difficult to overcome. The state's relationship with casinos is anything but dynamic, which is how they land in barren wastelands and suburbia. Oddly this is one thing Detroit has managed to do right, at least relatively. MGM Grand and Greektown Casino both house large hotel towers, and Greektown Casino stands integrated in one of the struggling city's most thriving neighborhoods.

Unless our state gaming commission has an epiphany and considers a casino license a means to offer more than gambling, much more, any casino in the state stands to be exactly the same no matter where it's dropped.

SugarHouse Expansion: More of the Same

SugarHouse Casino's most recent expansion proposal aims the site at the Delaware River. While private investment in Philadelphia beleaguered working river is a good thing, the lackluster expansion that once promised the city an exciting high rise gives advocates both for and against our city's casinos reason to pause.

The $155M expansion will include more event space and dining options, but the only thing challenging the Delaware River skyline will be a new seven story parking garage. The gaming floor will also be increased by 27,000 square feet. Let's be honest, this is where the money is.



Philly.com

In addition to improvements to the existing space, SugarHouse will be widening the streets surrounding the property to ease traffic congestion. Unfortunately this will make a project that once claimed to be a friendly neighbor feel more like an isolated strip mall than it already does.

While the DWRC has finally put some realistic plans in place for rejoining Center City with Penn's Landing, SugarHouse is further separating the Northern Delaware from any life but its own.

Where are the improvements that benefit its neighbors? Instead of spending $12M to accommodate more traffic, build smart and invest in improvements that get gamblers to the casino without traffic.

It's unfortunate enough that SugarHouse's site has abandoned any attempt to integrate itself into the fabric of the city, but sadly the beast is now eating away at the surrounding property with wider roads. The seven story parking garage appears to replace the large surface lot north of the casino but the asphalt prairie to the south will likely remain.

While SugarHouse and the city itself seem hell bent on ignoring the mistakes of the 70s by allowing this suburbanized plan to sprawl, hopefully we'll look twice at the dazzling proposals for Provence and Market8. When a plan calls for a "phased development," can it be trusted, or is it just a developer's cheap trick and an easy way to obtain permits?

Market8 and a Tub of Lego Blocks

When I first saw the new rendering for the Market8 Casino, I have to admit, I was a little excited. Giddy, even. We don't see a lot of proposals for new high rises in the city, particularly ones that deviate from a simple glass cube.

Market8 certainly does that.

Still, as Philebrity rightly pointed out, this casino won't happen. If we get another casino, we'll likely wind up with The Provenance or Wynn, the former being more exciting and, at the Inquirer Building, most central.

Market8 spokeswoman Maureen Garrity and lead developer Ken Goldenberg excitedly talk about engaging the site with the sidewalks, providing restaurants and retail space at street level with the casino upstairs.

That's a noble gesture and one that respects its location. In fact, in that regard, were we to actually see Market8 on Market East, it might just be the most respectful casino in any major city that doesn't exclusively cater to gambling.

Of course some of the more dangerous threats from Center City casinos come with their routinely phased development. Market8 might be pitching its casino with a high rise, but if this were to play out like SugarHouse we'd be left with a lackluster stump that looks a lot like a suburban movie theater.

Then there's parking. Market8 has clearly provided a parking garage in its design, and it appears that the surface lot on 8th and Chestnut is still available in the rendering. But SugarHouse provides a similar configuration, plus acres of surface parking lots sometimes full.

It won't take long for predatory land hoarders to recognize a demand for supplemental parking and begin buying up and demolishing adjacent buildings. Keep in mind, historic Jewelers Row is a block away. 

Market8 can't be blamed for this, particularly when the Pennsylvania Convention Center was allowed to move forward with no designated parking. But until the city sets a moratorium on private parking or raises the taxes on these lots, any casino in a depressed zone like Market East or North Broad unintentionally threatens the surrounding architecture.

Beyond the possibility that Market8 could replace the Disney Hole for an even larger Casino Hole, there's the redesign itself. Market8's previous rendering called for a low profile building running horizontally between 8th and 9th. It was sleek and modern, but also subtle and sophisticated. Of all the proposed casino designs in Philadelphia, it was the most applauded, even by some in the casino opposition camp. But for some reason, Market8's design team decided to throw out their webbed facade for something entirely different.

Maureen Garrity and Ken Goldenberg pitched the latest incarnation as a nod to the corridor's historic infrastructure, siting it a modernist interpretation of Wanamaker's or Gimbel's, essentially suggesting the more traditional approach is what we'd expect to see if Market East were the thriving commercial it should be.

I see what they're getting at. Market8's geometric shapes and ABC color palette reference recent proposals for a revived Girard Trust Block and renovations for The Galley at Market East. 

Previous Proposal for Market8

It's unfortunate because the previous design was a nice start. Even if Market8 faces an uphill battle, one it will likely lose, exciting proposals are exciting nevertheless. Instead of building on the prior concept, Market8 decided to play with a tub of Lego Blocks and gave us a collage of recycled postmodernism. 

Casino Craze: Part Deux

Bart Blatstein resurrected the Great Casino Debate with his proposed entertainment complex at the Inquirer Building which, admittedly, I think is a bit too Vegas for Center City. Not the casino itself, mind you, but the Tiny Town he proposed building on the roof of the building.

With a little excitement behind the second leg of the debate (and a lot of resistance), developer Ken Goldenberg has thrown his name into the casino hat with a proposal at a much more logical location: Market East. More specifically, the abhorred Disney Hole. Of course it's easy to dub this proposal Disney 2.0, but the same could be said for any entertainment project of this scale.

The preliminary rendering is vague at best, but pretty sleek. Backed by Campus Apartments and Deutsch Bank, the promise of investors are just as exciting as a destination attraction on our forlorn Market East.

Called Market8, Goldberg is off to a good start claiming the entertainment complex will only "happen to have a casino." The venue would offer numerous restaurants and retail, and best of all, underground parking.

Bye-bye, Disney Hole.

Hey, I'm a dreamer.

The multi-faceted approach isn't just the best way to pitch a casino, but the city should have required the approach all along.

SugarHouse was one of the city's biggest planning debacles. The proposal was grand, but phased, and the first phase called for a slot barn and a parking garage.

It's funny how the city decides to exert its muscle. They micromanage parks and condos, but when it came to SugarHouse, there were no caveats.

For the record, I'm all for casinos. Not personally. They're trashy, tacky, and for me, a waste of money. However, the same could be said for City Council itself.

But Philadelphia is big enough to provide plenty of entertainment for everyone. A lot of people sell the city short, not the least of which are those who rabidly charge themselves with saving Market East. Those activists have cost the city millions debating benign improvements to this part of town.

Philadelphia is chock full of quaint Colonialism, but we aren't Williamsburg and Market East isn't the place to preserve history, particularly when its few historic properties are already protected. Give the Capitalists their playground.

With that said, the State and City missed the mark with SugarHouse, and we have a second chance to work hand in hand with private developers to mark drastic improvements to our city's core.

I will never understand why the city didn't grant SugarHouse a casino license only contingent on better development. SugarHouse's proposal had plenty of competition. They would have done anything to get that license. The city missed an opportunity to get a lot of free improvements. City Council could have gotten more than just the dynamic casino complex SugarHouse originally proposed, we could have gotten a free Delaware Avenue lightrail.

At this point SugarHouse can likely claim that it's not profitable to expand it's non-gaming oriented entertainment or hotel. I doubt that's true, but the city put no requirements on them to expand, so they're content. If the city required a hotel and convention space as part of SugarHouse's "Phase 1" the project would be a lot more exciting than it is.

If Market8 has a chance at becoming a reality, the city should seize the opportunity to not just require more than a casino from Goldenberg's venue, but ask him to flip the bill for some of the improvements this corridor desperately needs.