Mayor Nutter reacted this afternoon with a mixture of relief and disappointment to the state Gaming Control Board’s decision to award the city’s second casino license to Live Hotel & Casino on Packer Avenue at Darien Street near the sports stadiums in South Philly.
Nutter preferred Center City locations — a project headed by developer Bart Blatstein on North Broad Street at Callowhill or a project headed by developer Ken Goldenberg at Eighth and Market streets.
Nutter said those projects could have spurred «real revitalization» in those areas. But he had clearly grown impatient with the board’s delay of several months in awarding the license.
«I don’t know what’s been going,» Nutter said. «We needed to move forward. They’ve made a decision. It is what it is. They get to make that choice.»
Nutter said he hopes the winning project «will move forward without too much consternation and challenge.» He cited potential benefits to the city.
«For us it’s a $425 million project, two to three thousand construction jobs, 1,500 permanent jobs, $16.5 million in anticipated tax revenue to the city and the School District actually gets money as a result of gaming in Philadelphia as well,» Nutter said.
