Maryland Business

By: Liz Farmer

With the Anne Arundel County Council scheduled to vote Monday on whether to allow zoning for slots at the Arundel Mills Mall, the Maryland Horse Council has issued an alert calling upon the industry to make its presence known that night.

The e-mail sent out by the council is pretty over-the-top — it implores people to “help save Laurel Park,” warning that the future of thoroughbred racing is in danger if the council votes to approve the zoning for Arundel Mills:

The Anne Arundel County Council will vote Monday on whether to allow the slots that we all expected to be put at Laurel Park Racecourse to instead go to a new non-racing facility next to Arundel Mills Mall. The Maryland Jockey Club predicts that if slots go to Arundel Mills, Laurel Park’s value will immediately plummet, the impending bankruptcy auction will be a disaster, and the land there will be used for a housing development. If zoning is denied for Arundel Mills slots on Monday, the Jockey Club will submit a proposal for slots at Laurel, it’s value will increase, and the track will be given a new future with new ownership.

Wow, talk about glossing over the details — first of all, it’s not even certain the county council will vote because they are hearing arguments before the vote. They have to vote before Midnight so if the hearings go over, the vote gets rescheduled.

Second, if the zoning gets voted down, while the MJC may WANT to submit a new application, there’s no guarantee that could be done. AND if the MJC (which is owned by Magna Entertainment Corp.) did apply for a license, Magna would most certainly take its Maryland tracks off the auction block and we wouldn’t have a new owner after all.

Does anyone else find this a bit too much?

By: Liz Farmer

The owners of Rosecroft Raceway filed their financial statement of affairs in bankruptcy court this week and it’s a 127-page doozy.

I won’t bore you with the details (most of it is a long list of creditors, ranging from standardbred horse owners to financial institutions) but here’s the meat of it:

• Rosecroft Raceway is valued at $9.9 million. If you remember, Mark Vogel just bought the property for a total “in excess of $10 million” so I’m guessing about $1 million or so from that deal will go toward subsidizing live racing.
• Wells Fargo (the only secured creditor) is owed: $6.8 million
• Total amount owed to all creditors: $8 million
• Total assets: $12.3 million

Here are a couple other tidbits I found worth noting.

•  On May 3 at 3:30 a.m., more than $79,000 was stolen from Rosecroft when two men pried loose an ATM machine and took it. Rosecroft has a claim pending with Travelers Insurance. This was days after its simulcast signal was shut off by the Maryland Racing Commission. Talk about salt in the open wound…
• Tom Chuckas, former general manager of Rosecroft, was paid $312,688 for his severance upon leaving the track to become the Maryland Jockey Club president and he got to keep his 2000 Lincoln Town Car. I’m wondering who picked out the Town Car.
• This year, Rosecroft has given more than $17,000 in political donations within the county: $10,000 to the Prince George’s County Presidential Inaugural Committee, $1,150 to Citizens for Melony Griffith, $1,000 to Friends of Anthony Muse, $500 to Friends of Carolyn Howard, $3,500 to Friends of Jay Walker and $1,000 to the 23rd District Team Slate.

By: Liz Farmer

An e-mail exchange posted on the Friends of the Senator Theatre blog site caught my attention this morning. On Monday, theater owner Tom Kiefaber wrote an open letter to Councilman Bill Henry and posted it on the site as well. Tuesday, Henry wrote back and his response follows Kiefaber’s letter on the site.

Going on seven months into my coverage of the theater, this exchange seems to get at the heart of the differing points of view here. Kiefaber, whose family built the theater in 1939, has been unable to keep it profitable for any real length of time since he took over operation in 1989.

He strongly feels this is not because of his management but because he went into debt keeping it running while the rest of Belevedere Square remained relatively desolate. Kiefaber has also told me on several occasions he believes the city left the Senator dangling when it invested millions in revitalizing Belvedere Square and he thinks it was unfair that none of that money was allocated for the theater.

On the other hand, the city and state have given at least than $500,000 in loans, and Baltimore backed $600,000 of the the Senator’s $950,000 loan from First Mariner Bank. And when the bank issued a foreclosure notice to Kiefaber after he was in default for five months, city officials moved to buy the deed so the theater wouldn’t be subject to a bank auction in which pretty much anyone can bid on the building. (At this month’s auction, the city has the right to be more selective about the winning bidder.)

I’ll also point out here that being a beloved city institution doesn’t guarantee salvation, as was the case with the Baltimore Opera Company when it filed for bankruptcy this year.

Kiefaber has also singled out Councilman Henry (who represents the district the theater is in) as being unwilling to help or listen to theater supporters.

As such, Kiefaber has posted the following on the theater’s marquee: “Councilman Henry won’t meet with the community about the auction.”

It seems in the 11th hour, we’re turning to character assassination. I suggest you read both letters but here are some excerpts.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Robbie Whelan

Back in December, the Baltimore Opera Company quietly filed for bankruptcy. It was Chapter 7, the kind a company doesn’t come back from, and later this month, the company will begin auctioning off its assets. At the time of the filing, I sort of kicked myself because going to the opera here in Baltimore was always something I had meant to do. You know, put on a thrift-store tuxedo, have a nice dinner with a few cocktails, then go do something civilized. But I never got around to it, and as they say, you don’t miss your water…

Last night The Story, a public radio news magazine based in North Carolina, broadcast a beautifully-produced homage to the Baltimore Opera Company vis-a-vis an extended interview recorded in the Baltimore studios of WYPR with Grant Striegel, a local man who saw his first opera at the Lyric Opera House at age 11, and immediately fell in love with the genre and with the place. Striegel’s manner of speech — straightforward, earnest, unadorned with sentimentalism or emotion — is so touching and honest, that when describing how nice world-famous soprano Rosa Ponsell was to him, or how when he was in grade school, the blaring trumpets on stage during Aida had wowed him, but then the closing death scene had made him weep, it all made me kick myself even more for not taking advantage of the place. Streigel also tells a hilarious story about visiting Ponsell’s villa in the Greenspring Valley, and offered the choice of any gourmet food for lunch he could ever dream of, he was so nervous all he could think to ask for was a tuna fish sandwich.

What’s so powerful about this is that Striegel is such a normal guy. He’s not a wealthy, over-educated or over-cultured aristocrat. He’s a working-class Baltimorean, the son of a machine-shop manager. He played in a Motown cover band called The Flying Circus that gigged in Ocean City in the summertime for tourists.  But on Thursday nights, Striegel would attend the premieres of the opera season at the Lyric. He says:

There’s nothing that moves me like, if I listen to Parsifal by Wagner…That just takes me to a new plane. If it can take you to a new plane and you can be with the angels even for just a few seconds, that to me is the measure of great art.

This piece is the first really involved piece I’ve heard on the Baltimore Opera Co., at least from one of its patrons. I recommend listening to it for anyone who isn’t completely sure of the value of our local cultural institutions, which are rapidly disappearing, and what they mean to regular people.

Listen to the interview and tribute from The Story here.

By: Liz Farmer

Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park dropped in value last year according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week.

The filing by bankrupt owner Magna Entertainment Corp. said that the company’s audit committee approved a $136 million write-down in the value of the company’s assets including the Maryland Jockey Club (which operates Laurel and Pimlico for Magna), Golden Gate Fields, Lone Star Park and The Meadows.

The properties “experienced lower average daily attendance and decreased wagering activity compared to previous years,” the filing said. “In addition, the 2009 business plans for these operations reflected reductions in estimated future cash flows based on lower expectations for growth and profitability resulting primarily from the significant downturn in the U.S. economy.”

In its bankruptcy filings, Magna has not assigned a dollar value to each of its assets up for auction, but the news that they have dropped in value could affect the offers. Do you think this news could attract people looking for a bargain or steer potential track owners away?

By: admin

Say goodbye to your local Boscov’s, Baltimore-area shoppers.

The Pennsylvania-based chain filed for bankruptcy Monday and announced it would be closing 10 of its 49 department stores. The hit list includes the stores at the Owings Mills Mall, the White Marsh Mall and Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie.

Three other Maryland locations will remain open.

So what effect do you think the shuttering of these three stores will have on their malls? Or, are you an especially big Boscov’s fan who will be sad to see your local store leave? Let us know.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist