Bringing Live! brand to Spain?
The Cordish Companies, which saw its bid to develop a $2.2 billion entertainment complex outside Madrid rejected earlier this year, is back with a new plan.
The U.S.-based family-owned company, best known for redeveloping the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, first presented the proposal in December and said it would create 56,000 jobs, according to the Financial Times. Madrid’s center-right regional government initially liked the plan, then concluded that it could not proceed in its existing form.
In a March 24 statement, the government said Cordish had not proven that the project was “viable from an economic and organizational point of view.” The government also said the plan would have forced Madrid to invest at least €340 million (US$364 million) in roads and rail lines to guarantee access to the out-of-town complex.
Authorities added that Cordish may revise and resubmit the plan—and now it has. The proposal argues that “the applicant will fully assume the execution of the necessary public infrastructures” including the provision of private bus shuttles for visitors. Cordish also supplied “financing letters” from M&T Bank and Credit Suisse, which it said demonstrated the company’s ability to fully fund the project.
Cordish says it’s “optimistic” the government will review the resubmitted application for Live! Resorts Madrid, which would include hotels, theatres, convention facilities, restaurant and retail outlets and gaming facilities.
