Editor’s Note: On my first trip to Bethlehem, Pa. a few weeks ago, I drove along the Lehigh River at night, past the rusting hulks of what once was the nation’s second-largest steel producer, Bethlehem Steel. Out of the eerie gloom of the enormous, industrial revolution property, the bright lights of the Sands Casino unexpectedly emerged. Too focused, perhaps, on Atlantic City, I had been unaware that there was a casino outside of the Poconos and Philadelphia. Today I learned that Sands has been operating there for more than 10 years and is about to turn over ownership to a native American tribe from Alabama. If you are equally out of touch, Jon Harris’s detailed story below will catch you up. —FB
By JON HARRIS| THE MORNING CALL |MAY 30, 2019 | 10:19 AM
It’s been just over 10 years since Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem opened May 22, 2009, a day when patrons arrived in the early morning hours to be among the first to try their luck at the $743 million gambling hall.
Now, what has become a roughly $1 billion complex is on the cusp of its first ownership change, after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday gave Wind Creek Hospitality the green light to close on its acquisition of the property.
In what ended up as a 2½-hour meeting, some interesting pieces of information were shared. Here, in Sands Bethlehem’s 10-year anniversary month, are 10 tidbits from the meeting:
Adventure is just beginning: Wind Creek has a $250 million plan to turn the No. 2 Machine Shop at the former Bethlehem Steel site into a 300,000-square-foot adventure and water park that also will include a roughly 400-room hotel. But the funding isn’t all there yet for this project. Wind Creek’s acquisition funding includes $100 million for the Machine Shop redevelopment, and the company is hoping to attract development partners to help secure the remaining $150 million. If Wind Creek can’t find partners, it could delay the project or lead to a change in plans for the site, said Arthur Mothershed, Wind Creek’s vice president of business development. But Wind Creek, he said, is committed to making use of the site. “If we can’t get the additional partners, we’re not just going to say, ‘It’s dead,’ ” Mothershed told The Morning Call. “We’ll continue to try to find alternative ways to make it happen because we think it’s an important piece of the property.”
Like this? Click to receive free updates
Ready for another hotel: While the No. 2 Machine Shop project isn’t set in stone, Wind Creek’s hotel expansion plan might as well be. Wind Creek plans to spend $90 million, which is included in its acquisition funding, to build a 276-room hotel along with another 42,000 square feet of meeting space. That project, which would take about two years to complete, would complement the Bethlehem site’s 282-room casino hotel and about 27,000 square feet of meeting space. The existing hotel is about 93% occupied, meaning Sands Bethlehem has to turn away people a few nights a week. In addition, the facility’s insufficient meeting space capacity forced it to decline $7 million in convention bids last year, Wind Creek noted in the presentation to the board.
No time like the present: Get ready for Wind Creek Bethlehem, because it’s coming fast. With state approval in hand, Wind Creek President and CEO Jay Dorris said the transaction could close as soon as Friday. Further, Wind Creek said it has $15 million designated for rebranding expenditures, which should be complete within 90 days.
