Mr Price allready sounds a little suspicious John.
Johnstown could be racetrack site
Thursday, August 19, 2010
By Bill Toland and Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Washington County businessman and stable owner says he wants to build a harness racetrack and casino near Johnstown -- and he says he has the money lined up to do it, something that can't be said of the company that currently holds the rights to build a racetrack in Lawrence County.
Daryl W. Price says he wants the harness racing license that now belongs to Centaur Inc., the company that has been trying unsuccessfully to build a racetrack called Valley View Downs.
Centaur, now in bankruptcy, recently announced that it intends to sell the project -- also in bankruptcy -- but its chances of finding a buyer diminish greatly if the state Harness Racing Commission declines to extend Centaur's development-rights deadline, which is set to expire at the beginning of September.
The commission has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 26 and may decide the issue then. If it decides against extending Centaur's deadline, it could throw open a statewide competition for the harness racing license and the lucrative casino license that would go along with it.
For now, though, "there is no [harness racing] license available for that group to pursue," said Justin Fleming, harness commission spokesman. He also said he doesn't know whether the Aug. 26 meeting will resolve the matter.
Mr. Price heads American Harness Tracks Inc. and has partnered with local real estate developers John Biros and Bob Biros, who will serve as the company's CEO and board chairman. The Biros family, of White Oak, previously pursued a thoroughbred racetrack in South Versailles near the Youghiogheny River but eventually dropped the project.
The ownership group settled on Johnstown, Mr. Price said, after scouting other cities.
"We felt that [Johnstown] was the market that was going to be the most effective for the horsemen, in the central part of the state, away from the other" racetracks and casinos.
Neither John Biros nor Bob Biros could be reached for comment on Wednesday.
All are familiar, if not well-known, names in horse racing circles, though Mr. Price has notoriety. In 1997, the former North Strabane supervisor and operator of Windcrest Stables at what was then The Meadows racetrack (now, there's a casino there, too) was accused by a handful of business associates of duping them out of horses and racing winnings.
Mr. Price, who was 28 at the time, said, via his lawyer, that the dispute was a misunderstanding. Ultimately, the Harness Racing Commission was pressed to investigate the case. The matter eventually settled out of court, but the families involved don't recall their dealings with Mr. Price fondly.
"We lost $13,000," said Matthew J. Kail, one of the horse owners involved in the dispute. "Everyone lost, expect for one person -- Daryl Price."
More recently, Mr. Price owned and ran the Rhythm House Cafe, a popular Bridgeville live-music venue that closed this year.
On Wednesday, he said his group has a "rural" location near Johnstown selected for the casino and racetrack, with options to buy the properties, and he also has a track operator lined up. He wasn't yet ready to divulge the site or the name of the gaming operator. The group is "prepared to invest $200 million and create 1,500 permanent jobs and 1,200 construction jobs," he said.
Mr. Price's group has yet to float the plan with anybody in the Johnstown business community, nor has it had any discussions with the Harness Racing Commission.
Absent those discussions, "we wanted to get in line" in the event that Centaur loses its harness rights, Mr. Price said.
"We think we have a good plan, in a good location, in an area that needs the jobs and needs tourism," he said.
The same can be said of Lawrence County.
Two Lawrence County officials, Commissioner Dan Vogler and state Rep. Chris Sainato, repeated their strong support Wednesday for putting the racino at Centaur's 250-acre site, west of New Castle and near the Ohio boundary.
"It's an ideal site and it's ready to go" as soon as a developer with sufficient capital is found, said Mr. Vogler.
Stripping Centaur of its development rights "could slow things down for another two years" while hearings are held on each proposal, Mr. Sainato said. He noted that it took the Harness Racing Commission four years, from 2003 to 2007, just to decide whether Centaur or its competitor, the Shick family of New Castle, should get the harness racing license.
"The best scenario to get this built as soon as possible is to keep the racetrack casino in Lawrence County," which needs the permanent jobs and the construction jobs, he said.
"If the Johnstown people want to build on the Lawrence County site, I'd be more than happy to welcome them."
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State's corporations bureau, there is not yet an entity called "American Harness Tracks Inc." incorporated to do business in Pennsylvania, though there is an American Harness Corp., which is based in Philadelphia.
Bill Toland:
btoland@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2625. Harrisburg Bureau Chief Tom Barnes:
tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 717-787-4254.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10231/1081075-455.stm#ixzz0x3E5vS00
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