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BY VANESSA PELLECHIO Times Staff Writer
Freedom Township could become the new home for a form of horse racing and a casino within about two years, local businessman Dave LeVan announced Thursday.
If the licensing and regulations go through, he said the proposed Mason-Dixon Downs would offer Standardbred harness racing, which involves horses pulling small carts with drivers.
The facility near the Maryland border would combine a racetrack and casino and could create “hundreds of jobs,” LeVan said.
LeVan, who owns Battlefield Harley-Davidson in Straban Township, said Mason-Dixon Downs would sit along the Mason-Dixon Line, less than a mile from U.S. Route 15.
The proposed site is 2.5 miles from the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center, also on Emmitsburg Road. The roughly 700-acre property is 3.2 miles from the Gettysburg National Military Park.
“We have an opportunity to do something special here in Adams County,” LeVan said at a press conference Thursday at Hanover Shoe Farms, near Littlestown. “We’ve listened to those who were concerned about our previously proposed location. That’s why this project is located 2.5 miles further southeast, across a major highway and along the Maryland border.”
LeVan has sought to develop a casino in Adams County twice before.
LeVan’s 2006 Crossroads Gaming Resort project proposed for the Route 15/30 intersection in Straban Township near the Gettysburg Battlefield was rejected by the state’s gaming control board, primarily because of the proposal’s proximity to the Gettysburg Battlefield. In 2010, LeVan, working as a co-investor with Joseph Lashinger, previously tried making the Eisenhower Inn in Cumberland Township a casino resort known as Mason Dixon Resort & Casino, but was denied by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
As if attempting to bring a casino to Adams County isn’t a challenge in itself, it is also the last opportunity LeVan will have to do so, he said. There is only one gaming license “of any kind” left to apply for in the state, LeVan said, but obtaining gaming and racing licenses would still be a two-step process.
Although LeVan anticipates it to be “a competitive process,” he is “confident there is no other place in Pennsylvania that will deliver higher revenues and higher taxes than this site.”
LeVan declined to share what revenues Mason-Dixon Downs could bring to the county, but said he will release the information at a later date.
He plans to apply for the last Pennsylvania harness racing license once the State Horse Racing Commission meets Jan. 26 to come up with an application process. The next step would be to apply for a category 1, gaming license through the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, according to LeVan.
For a slot machine license, LeVan will have to pay a $50 million fee and a $15 million fee for the table game license, as part of the gaming licensing process, he said. He is working with a California banking company to help come up with the funding.
LeVan declined to say the total estimated cost for the project, since the licensing fees are separate from construction costs.
LeVan noted that the history of Pennsylvania can “co-exist” with the gaming industry, citing examples of casinos near “Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge National Park and Fort Necessity National Battlefield.”
“In each instance, casinos have promoted historical sites, brought jobs to those areas and attracted more visitors,” LeVan said.
Standing with LeVan was Jim Simpson, president and chief executive officer of Hanover Shoe Farms, which is known for breeding horses for harness racing and has been selling them at the Farm Show Complex for the past 69 years.
Simpson noted his business is always looking for “more racing opportunities for our product.” Having a racetrack and casino are “one in the same,” in Simpson’s eyes.
Simpson, who is also chairman of the Standardbred Breeders Association of Pennsylvania, said the organization “strongly supports” this proposal.
“I’m not going to rule out the possibility of being an investor,” Simpson said.
LeVan said he plans to attend a Freedom Township Supervisors’ meeting in February to discuss the project. LeVan is under an agreement with the property owner to acquire the land, but did not comment on the potential cost. The property is currently zoned as multi-use, and LeVan is unsure if he’d need the zoning changed to move the project forward.
Other Standardbred tracks in Pennsylvania are located Harrah’s Philadelphia Racetrack in Chester, Meadows Race Track in Washington, and Pocono Downs Race Track in Wilkes-Barre, according to the State Horse Racing Commission’s website. A phone call to the agency after 3 p.m. was not returned Thursday.
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http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/local/article_f53a8f66-d918-11e6-889d-4736d0113ce8.html
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E-Mail for the Author, Vanessa Pellechio: vpellechio@gettysburgtimes.com
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