The
Maryland Jockey Club has submitted a preliminary 10-year plan to give Baltimore's aging Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park a major facelift, including new stalls for horses and housing for the grooms who take care of them. Money from Maryland's slots revenue would partially fund the construction, which would cost $30 million to start.
The plan needs approval from the Maryland Racing Commission and its Director Michael Hopkins could not say when it would give its OK. Hopkins says he expects that a capital improvement plan for the facilities will be approved.
Part of the funding for the proposed project would come from the Racetrack Facility Redevelopment Account, a portion of Maryland’s slots revenue the thoroughbred horse racing facilities receive by law. The Maryland Jockey Club, which owns the two facilities, will receive $8 million per year from slots starting in 2014. The Maryland Jockey Club is responsible for the rest of the funding.
Signed by Maryland Jockey Club President Thomas Chuckas Jr. the plan at Pimlico calls for a “major overhaul” to the facility, particularly in the "backstretch" area where the horses and grooms are located. Concept work for Phase 1 is underway and permit drawings will be done this year. Phase 1 would cost $15.5 million and include construction of a 130-unit grooms’ quarter building and six barns housing 216 stalls for horses.
Phase 2 would include construction of two, 260-unit grooms’ quarter buildings, a canteen building for the backstretch staff and 12 barns housing 432 stalls. Phase 3 would focus on improvements to the "patron" area of clubhouse and grandstand buildings and parking lot. The Maryland Jockey Club is evaluating costs for these two phases. Concept plans for them will be ready in 2014.
At Laurel, Phase 1 would include construction of at least 150 stalls; Phase 2, an additional 150 stalls. There would also be infrastructure improvements like storm water, sewage and roads. Phase 3 proposals include a new clubhouse and a mixed-use development and hotel building.
Hopkins calls the preliminary plan “open-ended.” He says it does not contain a specific timeframe for design and construction "although they probably want the stalls sooner than later.”
“This is a proposal, a snapshot of how they’d like to proceed with capital construction.”
The Maryland Jockey Club was required by law to submit a preliminary capital improvement plan for its thoroughbred racing facilities. The 2012 Maryland General Assembly required that such a plan be submitted in accordance with the Racing Facility Redevelopment Fund criteria.
The Pimlico capital improvement plan needs to be submitted to Baltimore City. In 2004, the city approved a plan unit development the Maryland Jockey Club submitted. That plan details road improvements, construction of parking garages and construction of housing and other amenities for Pimlico staffers.
Depending on how different Maryland Jockey Club's capital improvement plan is from the city plan, it would go to either the city planning commission or the City Council for approval, says Sara Paranilam, a senior capital planning analyst in the Baltimore City Department of Planning.
So far, though, no Pimlico capital improvement plan has been submitted to the city, Paranilam says.
Sources: Michael Hopkins, Maryland Racing Commission; Sara Paranilam, Baltimore City planning department
Writer: Barbara Pash;
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