Casino mogul will be managing general partner and majority owner of the Philadelphia waterfront casino

Foxwoods Philadelphia, the troubled casino project on Philadelphia's waterfront that has teetered on the edge of losing its license after missing financing deadlines, is set to get a new leader: casino mogul Stephen Wynn.

Wynn Resorts, the publicly traded operator that runs the Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas and Wynn Macau, announced that the company has signed a letter of intent with Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners LP under which an affiliate of the company will become manager and managing general partner of the South Philadelphia project.

The partnership consists of local business interests including the families of New Jersey businessman Lewis Katz, Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider and Philadelphia developer Ron Rubin, along with Connecticut's Mashantucket Pequot tribe, owner of the original Foxwoods resort.

The tribe had been the lead investor and was set to manage the casino. Should the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approve the deal, Wynn Resorts would take over as manager of the casino. Although exact details of the deal have not been released, a report in the Philadelphia Daily News suggests Wynn will also take over as majority owner, purchasing shares from each of the partners. That would likely mean a change in name and theme from the Foxwoods brand.

Should regulators approve the takeover, Wynn would likely be viewed as the savior of the South Philadelphia project. The Pequot tribe, which put up $30 million for a one-third equity in the project, is in dire financial straits due to flat business at its flagship Foxwoods resort, and is currently in negotiations with its lenders to solve a debt crisis. That financial morass combined with a series of clashes with state and local authorities since the project was licensed in 2006 to bring regulators to the brink of yanking the license and putting the project back up for bid.

The Foxwoods project ran into problems first with pressure to move from its original waterfront location. After state lawmakers threatened to cancel tax breaks to the project unless it moved off the waterfront, Foxwoods leaders agreed to move the project to downtown Philadelphia. The state Gaming Control Board, though, grew impatient with the partners after they were unable to secure a lease for their new location, on two floors of the former Strawbridge Clothier department store building.    

In September, the gaming board ordered the project back to its original waterfront location, and gave the partners an accelerated timetable that required a construction plan by December 1, and a financing plan by March 1. The project missed the construction plan deadline, and asked the board for an extension. Regulators imposed a record $116,000 fine on the project, plus $2,000 per day until a new construction was submitted.

The gaming board was set to rule on the extension at this week's meeting, and was also expected to vote on pulling the partners' license this week.

Wynn's approval would bring an entirely new dimension to the project, without any of the challenges involving financing. For company chairman Wynn, the project would mark his first operation in the East since selling the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in 1987. He flirted with a return to Atlantic City in the late 1990s before selling his former company, Mirage Resorts, to MGM in 2000.

Wynn said last week he is happy to be returning to Philadelphia, where he went to college. "I am thrilled to be returning to the East Coast, and in particular to the city in which I was privileged to have gained my college education," Wynn said in a statement. "Having attended the University of Pennsylvania for four years and served as a trustee for an additional 10 years, Philadelphia has always felt like home to me."

By Staff