Casino exec: Rail projects are important for urban areas

CINCINNATI - An owner of Cincinnati’s new casino has pushed for light rail projects in Detroit, where the company is based, and its executives are big believers in improving “connectivity” in urban areas.

Matthew Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures, told WCPO Digital that the company has invested time and resources to make rail projects a reality in Detroit.

Such projects, Cullen added, are an important part in revitalizing older urban cores and maximizing their residential and commercial potential.

Rock Ventures jointly developed Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati with its partner in the project, Caesars Entertainment Corp.

The $400 million casino opens to the public on March 4. A private preview and dry-run was held at the casino Wednesday evening.

“We’re big on connectivity, we’re big on urban redevelopment,” Cullen said. “In Detroit, I’m actually the CEO of the light rail project.”

The project, known as M-1 Rail, is working to build a $140 million light rail line along Detroit’s busy Woodward Avenue.

The light rail line would be a curbside system that connects to other transit systems north of downtown. It would have 12 stops – including business, educational and sports facilities – and go the city’s New Center neighborhood.

M-1’s first phase is 3.4 miles, “or as (Cincinnati) Mayor (Mark) Mallory likes to tell me, it’s really 6.8, because you go there and back,” Cullen said.

Backers eventually want the project to connect to a proposed commuter line that would extend to the state fairgrounds and possibly northern suburbs like Ferndale, Birmingham and Pontiac.

Cullen is also CEO of the private group supporting the transit plan. And Dan Gilbert, Rock Venture’s chairman, is co-chairman of the private group.

The M-1 Project is schedule to break ground later this year, and be operational in late 2015.

“We have raised about $140 million to build it, most of it philanthropically,” Cullen said. “We’ve raised the money to operate it for 10 years; we think it’s really important and we have worked really hard on it to get it into place.”

Also, the U.S. Transportation Department announced last month it would provide $25 million for the project.

By comparison, Cincinnati’s planned $110 million-plus streetcar system would be a 3.6-mile looped route that would extend from the riverfront through downtown and north to Over-the-Rhine, ending near Findlay Market.

It later would be expanded to the uptown area near the University of Cincinnati and several hospitals.

City officials hope to have the system open in time for the All Star Game in July 2015.

Cincinnati’s project includes $39.92 million in federal grants.

A feasibility study was completed in 2007, and City Council approved the project in April 2008.

But it has faced several delays and problems. They include a loss of $52 million in state funding; and unsuccessful ballot initiatives in 2009 and 2011 to block the project.

In Detroit, attempts to create a regional transit authority to push for rail projects had failed 23 times over the years.

Although light rail and streetcars have some technical differences, Cullen said, “The economics relative to the construction and operation are generally similar.”

Transit options are important to get people to live downtown, Cullen said.

“Philosophically, we think connectivity in an urban area and the ability then to attract folks that don’t want to have their car to get to where they live and where they work and where they play and so on, to move around, is a good thing,” he said.

Still, Cullen said he didn’t know enough details about Cincinnati’s project to give it his support.

“Now, the devil is in the detail of any project like that,” he said. “I know there are some budget issues and other things. I’m not close enough to it today to say, ‘Hey, this is something that we should move forward with or not.’”

If built, Cincinnati’s streetcar will be a benefit for the casino.

“The location as currently configured gets within a couple of blocks of the casino, which I think is plenty close enough to get great benefit from, both as a feeder to the system and a beneficiary of people coming from the system,” Cullen said.

Although there was some chatter among local transit supporters about constructing a spur line directly to the casino, Cullen doesn’t support it unless it extends further.

"I don’t think a spur makes sense just to go to the casino,” he said. “But if it were to continue up Reading Road to the medical center and other things, then it might make great sense. But I think that’s kind of a TBD (to be determined).”