Now the work begins.
Again.
If Foxwoods Casino wants to switch its slots parlor from South Philadelphia to the Gallery any time soon, it will have to plow through a to-do list as long as the one from last time around.
It includes:
Reaching out to neighborhood opponents.
Negotiating a lease with the owner of the Gallery.
Getting City Council to approve special zoning.
Asking the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for permission to move its site.
Every stage will require more community meetings, more Council and gaming board hearings, more political lobbying - more time.
Brian Ford, an executive with a group of local investors in the Foxwoods project, said at a City Hall news conference Wednesday that the goal was to be up and running at the Gallery within a year of receiving all city and state approvals.
In December 2006, Foxwoods was one of two companies to receive licenses to open slots parlors in Philadelphia. Foxwoods' site was on the Delaware River in South Philadelphia. Another investor group, SugarHouse, got a license to operate at a location in Fishtown and Northern Liberties.
But persistent delays and a lack of political support forced Foxwoods this summer to think about moving.
The company, a partnership between local investors and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, invested $170 million in the stymied South Philadelphia project and is eager to recoup its costs.
"We want this to happen as quickly as possible," said Maureen Garrity, a spokeswoman for Foxwoods.
Foxwoods officials have made it clear to Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell that if they don't get the support they need for the Gallery, it's back to South Philadelphia.
Garrity said there was no timeline, with multiple tasks happening simultaneously.
Among them:
Reaching out to neighbors. What would the casino look like? How many cars would go in and out? How soon could it happen?
Three of the biggest questions have no answers yet.
Terry Gillen, a senior aide to Nutter working on casinos, said city officials and Council members would like to start meeting with neighborhood groups, perhaps as early as next week.
The goal is to have at least a "first cut" from Foxwoods of what the facade of a casino at the Gallery might look like, she said. Foxwoods intends to have 1,750 slots in its first phase, rising to 3,000.
Gillen said she hoped working with neighborhood groups would go smoother than it had gone in South Philadelphia. "We'll have more give-and-take in this process that didn't exist the last time," she said.
