The Community of Madrid Rejects Cordish Casino Project

The Community of Madrid rejected the plans of the American casino operator Cordish Companies to construct the Live! Resorts Madrid entertainment complex in the Madrid municipality of Torres de la Alameda for the third time in seven years. Cordish Companies presented new plans to the Executive of Madrid for the €20m development in June but the local officials rejected the plans once again due to road infrastructure and environmental concerns.

Project rejected again:

The government rejected the project for the third time. According to the source, the Ministry of Economy said in the statement: “It is foreseeable that it will have a negative impact on the landscape, the territory, the fauna, and the road infrastructures, and that it entails a burden for the budget of the Community of Madrid. It is not proven that it produces a relevant, effective, and lasting impact on the economic, social, and cultural development of the region. Therefore, it is proposed not to process the project Madrid Live! as an Integrated Development Centre.”

Cordish Companies have modified the plans to address the project elements having been claimed as ”unfeasible” by the regional government on previous occasions and limited the size of the casino space to 10 percent of the total area seeking compliance with the Community requirements.

Project benefits:

The operator claimed that the Live! Resorts Madrid facility would generate around € 9 million in revenue, more than 55,000 direct or indirect jobs, and the tax revenue for the government amounting to almost € 3.25 million. The company expected around 8.6 million visitors to the complex within the first year of operation to support these projections.

Initial proposal:

In the initial proposal in December 2016, the family-owned operator running facilities across the United States proposed its Live! Resorts Madrid complex to include hotels, theaters, cinemas, and convention centers, as well as shopping, restaurant, and gaming facilities on 331 acres of land on the outskirts of Madrid. The regional government voted down the proposal claiming that it would have required the city to invest at least some $ 370 million to revamp road and railway connections to the facility.

Second proposal:

Cordish revised the plan, change the location to Torres de la Alameda, and re-submitted the amended Integrated Development Center project for approval in July 2017 but was rejected for the second time. The city lawmakers argued that the revised plan still relied too much on gaming revenues in order to succeed. They also indicated the restrictive number of integrated development center projects available for approval.

Third submission rejected:

The operator has meanwhile made additional modifications to the project, bringing down the anticipated casino floor from the 100,000 sq ft projection to ten percent of the total resort area to recently apply for the same location with another project revision for the third time. However, the regulator rejected the plans once again due to road infrastructure and environmental concerns. Instead, the Community of Madrid proposed the creation of hotel, leisure, commercial, and sports facilities in the location.