Posted on: November 7, 2022, 08:00h.
Last updated on: November 7, 2022, 12:46h.
Horseshoe Casino Baltimore is undergoing a major overhaul in hopes of reversing the casino’s struggles in recent years.
In an effort to regain lost market share to MGM National Harbor and Live! Casino Hotel Maryland, Horseshoe Baltimore is embarking on a redevelopment called the “Walk @ Warner Street.” The project, which is being led by the casino’s ownership group and Caesars Entertainment, the latter of which operates the downtown casino, will result in an entertainment and nightlife district surrounding the gaming venue.
The Walk @ Warner Street extends south from M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, to Horseshoe Baltimore. The district recently opened a Topgolf driving range with a restaurant and sports lounge. An indoor concert venue called The Paramount Baltimore is set to open next summer.
Part of the Walk @ Warner Street undertaking includes a hotel located across Warner St. from Topgolf at 1400 Warner Street. Blighted warehouses purchased by Caesars were recently demolished on the property.
Hotel is Years Out
Though construction is moving fast at the Walk @ Warner Street — The Paramount, retail stores, and a Yards Social Bar are all underway — Randy Conroy, general manager of Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, says the hotel component won’t be rushed.
Speaking with media outlet South Baltimore, Conroy said the entertainment district is first focusing on creating a new nightlife destination before moving forward with a hotel.
It was important for us to get Topgolf and The Paramount up and running. Once those assets get going and we see what happens there, it will spur on additional development,” Conroy explained.
Conroy says Caesars hasn’t yet decided if it will seek to build a hotel on its own and make it part of Horseshoe, or whether it will partner with an outside developer to build a hotel that’s distinct from the casino.
“We are meeting with folks now conceptually,” Conroy added. “It will be great to get something under construction in the next couple of years.”
Horseshoe Struggles
Horseshoe Casino Baltimore is one of Maryland’s three full-scale casinos, with MGM National Harbor and Live! being the other two. The state’s three other casinos — Hollywood Perryville, Ocean Downs in Berlin, and Rocky Gap in Flintstone — are smaller resort-style casinos.
Caesars envisioned the $442 million Horseshoe spurring economic activity surrounding the casino just south of the Ravens stadium when it opened in August 2014. But the city’s high crime rate has kept developers from investing along the Warner Street corridor.
The roughly quarter of a mile walk from M&T Bank Stadium to Horseshoe has consequently remained blighted with vacant warehouses, homeless, and peddlers. That was before Caesars began snagging up the distressed properties in an effort to redevelop the area.
Horseshoe has seen its annual gaming revenue decline in recent years. In 2015, its first full year in business, Horseshoe Baltimore won $289.4 million from its slot machines and table games. The casino set its all-time revenue record the following year, but has since seen its gross gaming revenue slowly evaporate.
- 2016: $324.3 million
- 2017: $271.5 million
- 2018: $259.9 million
- 2019: $237.8 million
- 2020: $145.2 million (COVID-19 pandemic)
- 2021: $208.8 million
MGM opened National Harbor with 308 hotel rooms outside of the nation’s capital in Oxon Hill in December 2016. Live!, which opened its casino in June 2012, added an on-site hotel with 310 guest rooms in June 2018.