Wynn Resorts Ltd., the casino company founded by billionaire Steve Wynn, will provide about $250 million for the riverfront project it’s seeking to take over in Philadelphia, cutting Foxwood’s ownership stake by half, Bloomberg News reports.
The funds represent approximately 40 percent of the estimated $600 million cost, based on “current thinking,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Wynn told the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today, Bloomberg said on its Web site. Wynn plans to manage the casino and own 51 percent under an accord with the current license holders.
Wynn Resorts said on Feb. 23 it signed a letter of intent with Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners to invest in and manage a casino in Philadelphia, joining investors who were awarded a license by state regulators in December 2006.
The partnership had controlled 70 percent of the proposed project and Foxwoods Development Co., a unit of the Mashantucket Western Pequot Tribal Nation, held 30 percent, and was supposed to design and manage the casino.
The Mashantucket tribe, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, defaulted on some of its $2.5 billion debt last year. It has a forbearance agreement with lenders through April 30 to restructure borrowings.
The tribe will become a 14 percent “passive minority investor,” Wynn said.
Wynn, operator of the Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas and Macau, China, seeks a presence on the U.S. east coast after dropping out of bidding to redevelop the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. Pennsylvania is letting slots-only casinos add table games this year and has licensed two Philadelphia casinos. Wynn is joining original investors who will now own 49 percent, said Fred Jacoby, an attorney representing the developers.
“Everyone gets cut in half, a little more than half,” Wynn said at the hearing. The agreement includes options for Wynn Resorts to buy out the partners, he said.
The Las Vegas-based company can provide funding and a new design for the delayed casino, and help build it “rapidly,” Wynn, 68, told regulators at the public hearing in Harrisburg.
The testimony was interrupted by protesters opposed to casinos in Philadelphia who were removed from the hearing. The gaming control board must approve changes to the proposed project, including Wynn’s involvement, according to Chairman Gregory C. Fajt.
The proposed site, on about 15 acres along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania’s most populated city, will include a three-story structure with 3,000 slot machines, table games and a parking garage, Wynn said on a Feb. 25 conference call. It will feature Italian, steak and Vietnamese dining, and won’t include a hotel.
 “It’s going to be the cutest casino that you’ve ever seen,” Wynn said last week. “It’s not going to look like slots in a box.”
