A Gateway Or Obstacle To Reviving Baltimore?

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Proposed Slots License Areas

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Still, Anderson said that if the city were to have slots, the Russell Street area south of the M&T Bank Stadium has its appeal. Operations at a Greyhound bus terminal nearby could be moved, with the site converted to the kind of depot that slots parlor operators covet for hauling in groups.

Even better is the access to Route 295 and I-95, which makes the site more accessible than Pimlico in northwestern Baltimore.

The city considers slots first and foremost as a revenue operation. Baltimore would make money from a "partnership agreement" with the slots licensee, Millard said.

Millard said no one has selected slots developers, and the parameters of a parlor's location, albeit limited, include land outside Gateway South.

Samuel Polakoff, who as a managing director of Cormony Development is a lead builder of Gateway South, walked a reporter through the drab area last week, saying Gateway South can flourish regardless of slots.

"This corner sort of becomes the gateway," Polakoff said, looking at the northeast parcel of Russell and Bayard streets.

A chain-link fence surrounds an industrial building that Polakoff estimates is 100 years old. Nearby, two stacked plastic milk crates serve as a bench for a man who washes the windshields of idling cars.

Polakoff said Lewis's "Team 52" development logo would grace a new building on the corner. "To say we're going to redefine this gateway and corridor would be an understatement," he added.

The Ravens stadium looms in the background, adding to the project's sports-urban motif. Polakoff walked east to a lot that was the scene of a recent fire and now holds piles of rubbish. "A great way to introduce people to the city," he joked.

Polakoff walked through a desolate patch of trees, arriving at a lightly used bicycle path linked to a 14-mile route through the city. His project would take over maintenance of the parkland. Then he got to a waterfront with a funky but not disagreeable view of the elevated ramps of I-95 in the distance. The developer said he does not have retail and business tenants lined up. "Obviously, the economy is not necessarily helping us in our progression," he said.

But that hardly means he considers slots an answer for his project. Polakoff said he was not involved in slot discussions with the city, and the final decision about a location came as a surprise.

The developer said it is his impression that a slots parlor would be placed outside his project.

Done correctly, he said, a nearby slots operation could possibly help his project. But poorly thought-out traffic patterns or choosing the wrong slots operation could affect how his project advanced.

"Part of the question," Polakoff said of a possible slots parlor, "is: If it's super close, have we designed a project that will attract the same patrons?"