Contractors came from near and far to hear about jobs and contracts for the casino project.
Photo by: Mark Reutter
Contractors crowded into the War Memorial Building yesterday to attend an information session on bidding opportunities at the $400 million Horseshoe Baltimore casino, which is expected to break ground early next year and create 2,000 new construction jobs.
Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., the project’s general contractor, sponsored the session along with the Maryland Washington Minority Contractors’ Association.
Wayne Frazier, president of the MWMCA, praised Whiting-Turner for voluntarily agreeing to goals of 25% minority hiring and 10% hiring of women-owned businesses.
Yesterday’s session was aimed at generating interest in the minority community about the hundreds of subcontracts available on the project.
Not from Baltimore
Most of the attendees, however, were not black – and there were few women in the crowd – reflecting the challenges of increasing minority participation, Frazier said.
“Most of the people here aren’t from Baltimore City,” he pointed out, surveying the crowd.
The casino will be located along Russell Street south of M&T Bank Stadium.
It will be operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp. and owned by CBAC Gaming, a joint venture of Caesars, Rock Gaming and local businessmen led by Caves Valley Partners, A&R Development Corp. and STRON-MD Limited Partnership.
Whiting-Turner is calling on bids for demolition of the warehouse buildings on Warner Street (previously occupied by Second Chance), sediment control, surveying and preliminary grading. Future bids will be awarded for structural steel, roofing, site utilities, electrical work, drywalling and other tasks.
Sources told The Brew that Whiting-Turner has already settled on a major contract.
The 100-foot-high and 700-foot-long parking garage along Warner Street – to be the city’s largest parking facility – will be constructed under a design-build contract by Shuster Concrete.
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