Bruce Smith teams with Cordish on Petersburg casino plan

Virginia Beach developer and NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith is vying for the chance to develop a casino in Petersburg and has joined forces with Cordish Cos., the Baltimore-based entertainment company that has already made inroads in Virginia.

There’s just one obstacle facing Smith and other prospective developers, including Bally’s, Penn Entertainment, Rush Street Gaming and D.C.-based Warrenton Group: a piece of legislation awaiting action by the Virginia General Assembly. Virginia State Senate Bill 628 replaces Richmond with Petersburg in the state’s list of cities eligible to host a casino, clearing the way for a casino referendum to be held in Petersburg.

However, the House of Delegates added a reenactment clause to the bill’s wording at the last minute, which would require next year’s General Assembly to take up the bill and vote for it a second time before Petersburg can move forward with a referendum vote — a move that would delay the development of a casino there by at least a year.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed the reenactment clause and sent the bill back to the legislature, which will vote on his amended bills April 17. If the General Assembly leaves the bill as-is, Petersburg will likely hold a referendum this fall — and that’s what Smith hopes will happen. He says Petersburg is ready and needs the economic benefit of a casino sooner rather than later.

“Now’s not the time to play politics with the people of Petersburg,” Smith said this week in an interview with Virginia Business, directing his remarks toward House Speaker Don Scott. “They need this economic development opportunity — more so than any other city in the state of Virginia. This is a critical time. That is costing the city money [and] jobs, trying to alleviate the problems of food deserts [and] underfunded schools. We can’t allow folks to say one thing and do another. The time to act is now, and all we’re asking for is to … take the reenactment clause right out of the bill.”

The former defensive end for the Buffalo Bills and Virginia Tech Hokies plans to unveil details of his and Cordish’s casino proposal Sunday at the Petersburg Public Library. The proposed casino will be similar to a $1.4 billion development submitted in 2022 by Cordish and approved by Petersburg City Council in a nonbinding agreement — which became null and void because Petersburg did not receive legislative support to hold a casino referendum that year. Smith, who collaborated with Cordish on a failed Richmond casino proposal in 2021 but was not part of the 2022 Petersburg bid, said the new proposal is “similar, with some tweaks.”

While he will disclose more details Sunday, Smith said “the structure of the deal in itself” will be different. “I will discuss those details on Sunday at the town hall, and they will be groundbreaking — and I think it will be breaking news.” Smith said he became interested in working in Petersburg after a visit with other NFL all-stars a few years ago to a local school and seeing room for economic improvement.

As in the 2022 proposal, the Cordish resort would be built on 90 acres at the intersection of Wagner Road and Interstate 95, and the casino would be “just one component in this massive development,” Smith said, including a 3,000-seat theater among residential, office and retail buildings on the site. He says his team expects to create 7,500 jobs total, including construction jobs, and produce about $2.8 billion in economic impact for the city over the casino’s first 10 years in operation, according to a CNBC interview he gave about the venture this week.

Smith says that his status as a born-and-bred Virginian — having grown up in Norfolk, graduated from Virginia Tech and moved to Virginia Beach to start his real estate business — is a major point in his favor.

Bruce Smith Enterprises, based in Virginia Beach, has previously developed hotels in Washington, D.C., and Virginia Beach in partnership with Armada Hoffler, and Smith is involved in projects slated for Virginia Beach’s Rudee Loop and a 287-unit apartment complex in Norfolk.

He also says that his development team would focus on making sure there is robust local participation in the project, noting that in some majority Black cities that host casinos, participation from investors of color is minimal. “Historically, when opportunities for major developments have taken place, Virginians have either been shut out, or given such a small percentage, even in areas that are disenfranchised,” he said. Petersburg’s population is about 77% African American, Smith notes.

“First and foremost, this is about the citizens and the city of Petersburg, a city that has been ignored and disenfranchised for three generations, to be quite honest,” Smith said. “A city with historically high unemployment, poverty, food deserts [and] underfunded schools, just to name a few problems. This city needs this economic engine more than any other city. It’s time to put Virginians first.”

Meanwhile, the Smith-Cordish plan is not the only one under consideration; four other prospective developers have applied for consideration:

• Bally’s is a major national player in the casino industry and has previously vied for the Danville casino (which Caesars Entertainment ultimately won), but according to news reports, the company also is struggling to raise capital for a new resort in Chicago;
• Rush Street Gaming is the Chicago-based company that operates the Portsmouth Rivers Casino, the first permanent casino to open in Virginia;
• Penn National Gaming is based in Hollywood, and its focus is on “community casinos,” as opposed to those based in Las Vegas and Atlantic City;
• The Warrenton Group is a Washington, D.C.-based business developer that has an agreement with casino operator Delaware North, but the Warrenton Group itself is a new entrant to the casino industry.

Cordish pitched a $600 million hotel and resort casino in 2021 in Richmond’s North Side that would have featured a live music hall, but ultimately a plan proposed by Urban One on the city’s South Side won approval from the city. Cordish also sued the City of Norfolk in 2021 for $100 million alleging the city government breached its contract with the company, in which Cordish said it agreed to develop the Waterside District in exchange for the exclusive right to develop and operate a casino in Norfolk — although at the time casinos were not yet legalized in Virginia.

Instead, Norfolk reached a deal with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to develop the HeadWaters Resort & Casino with Tennessee billionaire investor Jon Yarbrough. Cordish’s lawsuit was dismissed by a Norfolk circuit court in 2022, and the state Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision last month, but there is still a possibility that another entity will take control of the long-delayed HeadWaters project.

According to an April 4 Virginian-Pilot story, Norfolk city leaders are considering the possibility of partnering with a developer other than the tribe and Yarbrough. Under the casino referendum passed by city voters in 2020, the development team is required to obtain a gaming license within five years, or by November 2025. To do so, developers needed to begin construction of the permanent casino by this spring, a casino spokesperson said previously. Smith said it’s possible that he and Cordish would enter the running if the city opens the field to other casino developers.

“If there’s an opportunity that exists in Norfolk, in my hometown, after we take care of Petersburg, we will certainly address that opportunity if it arises,” Smith said, while noting, “first and foremost, our focus is on Petersburg.”