WYPR News in Maryland
(2009-10-12)
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"Our industry, tourism, is based on disposable income and if it's not spent here, if it's spent somewhere else that may be less revenue that's spent in Ocean City."
That's Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan. While he and others paint an apocalyptic vision of shuttered local businesses, they also say they are realists who are looking to mitigate their losses. Meehan points, for example, to the lack of hotels and restaurants near the harness track.
"We're going to be the residential base. You know, the people that come to this area are going to be staying in Ocean City. So, we're going to want to embrace those customers, you know, they're customers of ours, too. They might be previous customers, they might be new customers."
Michael James, managing partner of the sprawling Carousel in the beachfront stretch known as "Condo Canyon," says merchants are becoming a little more comfortable with the idea of a slots parlor just outside town. And he predicts they will soon get on board.
"People now have accepted the fact that it's coming and instead of resisting it or fighting against it, you know, it's a fact now. They're going to begin construction, as you know, soon. And so I think a lot of the merchants or the hotels will probably end up trying to find a way to work in concert, or piggy-back on the fact that slots will be out here on the Eastern Shore."
Maryland's slots commission awarded William Rickman, the Montgomery County developer who owns Ocean Downs, permits for 800 slot machines at the Worcester County track in September. The commission is expected to award slots permits to Penn National Gaming for a site in Cecil County later this month, but it is unclear how much longer it will take the commission to award permits for sites in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County.
Rickman, who also owns Delaware Park Horse Racing and Slots near Wilmington, failed to return calls for comment for this report. He has said he wants to have the first slots at Ocean Downs ready for Memorial Day weekend two thousand ten. But Worcester County Commissioner Bud Church, whose district includes the race track, says Rickman has a way to go before he can open that parlor off Route 589.
"The state is not going to allow that to happen until he's made improvements to 589. He is currently negotiating with the state on what those improvements need to be now and in the future."
He has to install new turn lanes to accommodate traffic in and out of the track and Church says there's talk of a traffic light and maybe a turning lane off Route 50 onto the two-lane road that leads to the track.
"He will not be able to open until those improvements have been made."
And he needs building permits to renovate the 34-thousand-square-foot facility.
Todd Ferrante owns Park Place Jewelers with shops on the Boardwalk between Second and Third streets and in the West Ocean City outlets, much closer to the track. He says slots may help him.
"We've been told by some people, including the owner of the slots track, that it will increase our business, that it will definitely increase our off-season business. So we're certainly hopeful that it will."
But Jay Knerr, owner of The Kite Loft on the Boardwalk at Sixth Street, sounded a cautionary note. He had a shop among the casinos of Atlantic City that failed because gambling and whimsy don't mix.
"The people that came for slots didn't necessarily come and shop in our store. However, there's only so many hotel rooms in this area. And if the people coming to play slots take up those hotel rooms, they may not necessarily shop in my store. So I will have to find ways to get creative."
He said he hasn't figured out what that is yet, but he's working on it.
I'm Joel McCord, reporting in Ocean City for 88.1, WYPR.
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