Latest news with #BoardofPublicWorks
NBC Sports
10-05-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
Maryland board OKs plan to start demolition to rebuild Pimlico Race Course shortly after Preakness
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland board approved a $14.3 million contract on Wednesday to begin the demolition and rebuilding of Baltimore's storied but antiquated Pimlico Race Course, home to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. The vote by the three-member Board of Public Works, which includes Gov. Wes Moore, was made 10 days before the 150th Preakness Stakes, which is scheduled for May 17. It will be the last time the annual horse race will be held with the existing structures in place before the track is rebuilt on the same site. The demolition will begin shortly after this year's race. 'There cannot be a better time to announce the beginning of a transformation that will allow Pimlico to become a year-round hub for economic activity within the Park Heights community,' Moore said of the Baltimore neighborhood and longtime home of the race. Under the plan, the Preakness will take place in Laurel Park, located just southwest of Baltimore, in 2026 while the new facility is built, before returning to Pimlico in time for the 2027 race. Craig Thompson, the chair of the Maryland Stadium Authority which is overseeing the design of the new track, said the plan is to make Pimlico the home of Maryland thoroughbred racing. The track will go from hosting about 15 races a year to well over 100, Thompson said. 'This is more than just about a racetrack, as historic and important as it is,' Thompson said. 'This is about bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in state investments to Park Heights.' Thompson also shared a preview of the design plans. They include a new clubhouse with architecture inspired by the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore's Druid Hill park and the original Pimlico Clubhouse, which included a colonnade and rooftop balconies, Thompson said. Last year, the board approved a deal to transfer ownership of Pimlico from The Stronach Group to the State of Maryland in order to ensure the Preakness remains in Baltimore. The state has been wrestling with what to do to restore the old racetrack for decades. Aptly nicknamed Old Hilltop, the track opened in 1870. It's where Man o' War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat and many others pranced to the winner's circle. But its age has long been a concern. In 2019, the Maryland Jockey Club closed off nearly 7,000 grandstand seats, citing the 'safety and security of all guests and employees.' The horse racing industry and other equine industries have been a cornerstone of Maryland agriculture, as well as an integral part of preserving green space.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maryland Governor Unveils Plans For New Pimlico Race Course, Training Center
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Board of Public Works have approved a demolition package for Pimlico Race Course and the acquisition of Shamrock Farm in Carroll County to serve as the premier training center hub of Thoroughbred racing in Maryland. The actions mark a critical step forward in growing local and statewide economies, in addition to promoting the future of Thoroughbred racing in the state. 'Today we take another step toward a new, reimagined Pimlico,' said Gov. Moore. 'I thank my colleagues on the Board of Public Works, the Maryland General Assembly, the Maryland Stadium Authority, the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, and our local community partners for securing the future of Preakness in Maryland. Together, we will continue to drive economic growth in Park Heights, throughout Baltimore, and across the entire state.' During the meeting, representatives from the Maryland Stadium Authority revealed the design concept for Pimlico Race Course, which will begin demolition and restoration following Preakness 150 on May 17. 'We are excited to deliver a new, modern Pimlico for racing fans and the Park Heights community,' said Maryland Stadium Authority Chairman Craig Thompson. 'But this work is bigger than a racetrack, as historic and important as it is. This is about bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in state investment to Park Heights and working in partnership with MEDCO and the local community to realize a shared vision for the future.' The Maryland Stadium Authority — in partnership with The Maryland Jockey Club and the Park Heights community — will oversee the construction of the new Pimlico Race Course. The new facility will support approximately 500 jobs and will be a year-round hub of economic activity in Park Heights. Pimlico, which currently hosts about 15 racing days per year, will become the permanent home of Maryland Thoroughbred racing with well over 100 racing days annually. The site design unveiled today will also create a strong and consistent identity, with a new clubhouse inspired by grand Baltimore landmarks such as the Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park and the original Pimlico Clubhouse. The approved acquisition of Shamrock Farm sets in motion one of the largest state investments in Carroll County in recent history, following a two-year investigation of more than eight sites across six Maryland counties. The State of Maryland will direct at least $110 million to the new training center, which will offer 328 pastoral acres to create a best-in-class training facility with more than 800 boarded horses, housing for backstretch workers, and a training track with dimensions identical to those at Pimlico. 'Two years ago, we were tasked with creating and implementing a sustainable thoroughbred racing strategy for the state,' said Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority Chairman Greg Cross. 'I'm proud to say that we have completed our work ahead of schedule. Pimlico is safely in state hands, we set up a nonprofit operator to run the track, and at Shamrock Farm we have the ideal location for a world-class training center.' The Shamrock Farm acquisition is supported by the Carroll County government, which has agreed to commit $1.5 million to offset infrastructure costs. 'Carroll County is thrilled Shamrock Farm has been selected as the site for Maryland's horse racing training facility,' said Carroll County Board of Commissioners President Kenneth A. Kiler. 'Shamrock's 328 acres combined with Carroll's rich equestrian tradition brings well-deserved notoriety to this beautiful farm and the area. We are honored to be playing such an integral role in this long-term endeavor. The county has committed 1.5 million dollars to the state project and is looking forward to seeing the plans come to fruition
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Board approves Pimlico contracts in what might be last handout for Maryland racing
The three-member Board of Public Works approved contracts that some say will lead a generational opportunity to reinvigorate Pimlico Race Course and the surrounding Park Heights community. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters.) The Board of Public Works gave the green light Wednesday to 'a once-in-a-generation opportunity' to reinvigorate horse racing in Maryland, even as one member questioned if this would be the last chance for the industry. The three-member board approved contracts for the demolition and rebuild of Pimlico Race Course and the purchase of a Carroll County farm that will become a horse training center. The effort is not only another state attempt to save the industry, but is also seen as a way of revitalizing the Park Heights community in northwest Baltimore. 'Almost a year ago today, this board approved the transfer of ownership of the Pimlico race course to the state of Maryland, seizing a once in a generation opportunity to reimagine thoroughbred racing in the entire state with the celebration of the 150th Preakness states that is taking place next week,' said Gov. Wes Moore, who chairs the board. Moore said the new track, once completed, will 'become a year-round hub for economic activity within Park Heights' and 'serve to revitalize Maryland's horsing industry,' an industry he said accounts for 28,000 jobs and $3 billion in economic activity. But it's an industry that has struggled for decades, and one that some have questioned the value of using state taxpayer dollars to save. Treasurer Dereck Davis questioned whether this latest effort represents the state's final attempt to steady a struggling industry. 'The state, with the implementation and subsequent completion of this project, we will have done everything we could do to make racing successful, other than the third weekend in May every year' when the Preakness is run, Davis said. 'Is there anything left that I guess we can do or — this has to be successful, I guess is what I'm getting at. The state's invested a lot of money over the years. This has been an issue since I first came to Annapolis, literally 30 years ago.' Davis said he did not question efforts to revitalize Park Heights but wondered aloud if remaking Pimlico and consolidating thoroughbred racing at the track would save the industry. 'I guess what I'm asking, is this just a pipe dream, quite frankly, … can provide racing, or is it just sort of a niche thing that we enjoy every third weekend in May, and then it's just sort of out there waiting for the next May to come?' Davis asked. Craig Thompson, board chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority Board, which will have a hand in the redevelopment, agreed that the state 'has done everything that it can to make sure that we lay the foundation for the success of not only the 150th running of the Preakness, but the racing industry, as it grows and expands and races to come in Baltimore.' Continued success will hinge on what he called the 'participation and spread the word' theory. 'It's going to be very important for each and every one of us to participate in the Preakness and in the non-racing … days in Park Heights,' Thompson said. 'Support the community. Make sure that on those non-racing days you come to the Park Heights community. You're going to see a wonderful evolution and revolution in that area. So, when there's not a race, still come. Participate in that area.' The plan approved Wednesday includes a $15.2 million contract with Baltimore-based Clark Construction Group related to the demolition and redevelopment of Pimlico Race Course. Demolition of the storied but deteriorating track could begin later this year. The 2026 Preakness Stakes will be run at Laurel Park, but is scheduled to return to a new Pimlico in 2027. Thompson showed renderings of what the new facility would look like. In addition to the Preakness, the plan calls for consolidating all thoroughbred racing in the state at Pimlico, expanding race days. 'This is more than just about a racetrack, as historic and important as it is,' Thompson said. 'This is about bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in state investments to Park Heights. The Pimlico Plus plan that the state is implementing will transform Pimlico into the home of Maryland thoroughbred racing, going from hosting about 15 racing days per year to well over 100.' The board voted unanimously to approve the contract with Clark Construction and voted 2-0 — Comptroller Brooke Lierman recused herself from the vote — to buy a 328-acre Carroll County farm for nearly $4.5 million. The property known as Shamrock Farm will become a new training facility to support expanded racing at Pimlico. The purchase price was the highest of three appraisals conducted for the racing authority. The General Assembly in 2024 set aside $110 million for construction of a new, state-of-the art training facility as part of a thoroughbred racing centralization plan. The planned state-of-the-art facility will house 800 horses. Davis was not the only board member to question the effort: Lierman raised concerns about who would have ultimate oversight as the state invests hundreds of millions into the project. Currently, the project includes the Maryland Thoroughbred Race Track Operating Authority, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and the Maryland Economic Development Corp., as well as the reconstituted Maryland Jockey Club. In July, the race track authority will be disbanded. The stadium authority will oversee construction while MEDCO handles economic development around the track and the possibility of a hotel and parking garage. 'It's a lot of cooks in the kitchen on what's already a very complicated project,' Lierman said. 'Sometimes when there are multiple cooks in the kitchen, it's hard to determine where the buck stops.' Lierman asked Thompson to 'help us understand how there is going to be oversight when there are so many different bodies who are involved, to be sure that there are loopholes, to be sure that we know where these bonded dollars are going, that … we are spending them efficiently. Because there is a limited amount of dollars, and I think the General Assembly has been pretty clear that there's not going to be any more.' Lierman recused herself from the Shamrock Farm purchase request and left the room for the discussion and vote. The comptroller said during the meeting that she recused herself 'on the advice from the state ethics commission.' She did not elaborate. A spokesperson for Lierman cited state ethics law that requires recusal ' because of a qualifying relative's employment with a business entity that is a party to this matter.' 'As is the practice of members of the Board of Public Works, Comptroller Lierman notified both her colleagues on the board and made the appropriate disclosures to Ethics ahead of today's meeting,' Robyne McCullough said in an email response to questions. 'She did not participate in any discussions on this item and left the room prior to BPW consideration.' McCullough declined to answer questions regarding the identity of the relative in question or the connection to the farm purchase. 'I don't think we're going to go into that,' McCullough said. She said the decision to not elaborate on any recusal 'is a practice for us and we're just being consistent.' The board also unanimously approved a payment of more than $1.2 million to Tyrone Jones and two law firms as compensation for time Jones spent behind bars on an erroneous conviction on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Moore, as he has done in the past with others who were erroneously convicted, apologized directly to Jones. 'Mr. Jones as the governor of this state, but also, more importantly, as a father and a husband and a son and a fellow Marylander, I want to share words that you deserve to hear, because I'm not just speaking on behalf of myself and the treasurer and the comptroller, I'm speaking on behalf of this entire state: I'm sorry. It should have never happened, and I know there are no words that can undo the injustice and what was taken away from you and your family,' Moore said. Jones, now 48, was convicted in Baltimore City of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in 1999 related to the shooting death of Tyree Wright. In that trial he was found not guilty of first- and second-degree murder. He spent the next 10 years in prison as part of a life sentence. In 2009, Jones filed a petition for post-conviction relief and a judge vacated his verdict. City prosecutors, who initially said Jones should get a new trial, declined to retry Jones, and dropped the case. Jones applied for compensation under the Lomax Act but was initially denied. A hearing officer ruled that the charge of conspiracy to commit murder did not qualify for compensation. The General Assembly in 2024 passed legislation that changed the eligibility standards. Jones was confined for 3,611 days. As a result, he was awarded $976,233.85 in compensation by the Office of Administrative Hearings. The money will be paid out in five installments. The first payment of $98,678 was due May 2. He will receive four additional payments of more than $219,000 each between December 2025 and July 2027. The state hearing officer also awarded payments to two law firms related to the case. Brown Goldstein Levy will receive nearly $137,000. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel will receive more than $110,000 in legal fees. The money paid to Jones and his attorneys comes entirely from the state. In two months, that will change. Starting in July, payments made to individuals who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned will be split equally between the state and the jurisdiction where the individual was convicted. That change is part of a compromise budget agreement reached by the House and Senate earlier this year.
Time Magazine
08-05-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
After Hogan Controversy, Maryland Passes New Ethics Law
Maryland governors will soon have to play by a new set of rules. On Tuesday, Gov. Wes Moore signed into law a bipartisan overhaul of the state's ethics laws requiring future governors to put their financial holdings in a blind trust or disinvest from them entirely. The bill, authored by Democratic Delegate Marc Korman, passed unanimously in both chambers of the Maryland statehouse this spring. 'We can't go back to fix the mistakes that were made in the past,' Korman says. 'But we do want to make sure that you know any future governor is definitely acting on the people's behalf and not their own behalf.' The 'instigating moment' that triggered the legislation, Korman says, was a TIME report last October on former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's approval of millions of dollars in affordable housing awards to his real estate firm's listed clients. Over Hogan's eight years in office, nearly 40% of the competitive affordable housing awards overseen by the governor went to developers listed as clients on Hogan's real estate firm's website, according to a TIME review of public records. Those awards were concentrated among six developers who competed against more than 60 other companies during that time. As one of three members on the Board of Public Works, an administrative body that determines how Maryland taxpayer money gets spent, Hogan also voted on five occasions to issue additional loans or grants to four of those same developers. A subsequent story found that one of the projects Hogan approved was being developed on Hogan's family property. In January 2021, he greenlit $15 million in low-income tax credits over ten years to convert a parcel in Frederick, Maryland into an affordable housing site. The bucolic land was purchased by Hogan's father and stepmother in 1983 for $230,000. After one of the Hogan firm's clients secured the tax credit to build low-income housing there, the governor's step mother sold the property to the developer in 2022 for $3.75 million. A spokesperson for Hogan did not respond to a request for comment on the new law. Last fall, Hogan dismissed TIME's reporting as an 'October surprise,' calling it 'completely false' without citing any factual inaccuracies. He has argued that he held his assets in a 'trust agreement' approved by the State Ethics Commission that allowed him to remain apprised of his company's investments, investors, and other matters including the location of its real estate projects. During that time, Hogan put his brother in charge of the firm, HOGAN, and made his business partners his trustees. All the while, he continued to hold regular meetings with HOGAN's leaders, according to his official meeting calendar, which was obtained by the Washington Monthly via a FOIA request in 2019. Hogan declined to provide TIME with his tax returns for all eight years in office. When he was running for reelection in 2018, he revealed making $2.4 million during his first three years in office from undisclosed sources, making him the first governor in Maryland history to make millions of dollars while in office. Hogan's official annual salary ranged from $165,000 to $180,000. On a financial disclosure form from last year he reported a net worth between $12.3 million and $35 million. The new ethics law would require governors within six months of taking office to either divest from their holdings or place all their assets into a blind trust. In some rare cases, the measure allows for governors to maintain ownership of an interest but enter into a nonparticipation agreement with the State Ethics Commission. Government watchdogs argue the Maryland legislation offers a model for other states and the federal government. 'I think every state should pass such a law,' says Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush Administration. 'I think that bill should be copied and passed through Congress and applied to the President of the United States.' Painter and others have expressed alarm at President Trump allegedly benefiting financially from his presidency, including by recently launching a meme coin. There is also a growing movement to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks. In a recent interview, Trump told TIME he would sign such a ban into law. For now, though, it's one of Washington's neighboring states that is brandishing new government ethics reforms. 'Gone are the days when a Maryland governor can make millions of dollars in office because they didn't view their time in public service as a reason to stop their profits,' Moore said at a bill-signing ceremony in Annapolis Tuesday.
Washington Post
07-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Maryland board OKs plan to start demolition to rebuild Pimlico Race Course shortly after Preakness
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland board approved a $14.3 million contract on Wednesday to begin the demolition and rebuilding of Baltimore's storied but antiquated Pimlico Race Course, home to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. The vote by the three-member Board of Public Works, which includes Gov. Wes Moore, was made 10 days before the 150th Preakness Stakes, which is scheduled for May 17. It will be the last time the annual horse race will be held with the existing structures in place before the track is rebuilt on the same site. The demolition will begin shortly after this year's race. 'There cannot be a better time to announce the beginning of a transformation that will allow Pimlico to become a year-round hub for economic activity within the Park Heights community,' Moore said of the Baltimore neighborhood and longtime home of the race. Under the plan, the Preakness will take place in Laurel Park, located just southwest of Baltimore, in 2026 while the new facility is built, before returning to Pimlico in time for the 2027 race. Craig Thompson, the chair of the Maryland Stadium Authority which is overseeing the design of the new track, said the plan is to make Pimlico the home of Maryland thoroughbred racing. The track will go from hosting about 15 races a year to well over 100, Thompson said. 'This is more than just about a racetrack, as historic and important as it is,' Thompson said. 'This is about bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in state investments to Park Heights.' Advertisement Thompson also shared a preview of the design plans. They include a new clubhouse with architecture inspired by the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore's Druid Hill park and the original Pimlico Clubhouse, which included a colonnade and rooftop balconies, Thompson said. Advertisement Last year, the board approved a deal to transfer ownership of Pimlico from The Stronach Group to the State of Maryland in order to ensure the Preakness remains in Baltimore. The state has been wrestling with what to do to restore the old racetrack for decades. Aptly nicknamed Old Hilltop, the track opened in 1870. It's where Man o' War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat and many others pranced to the winner's circle. But its age has long been a concern. In 2019, the Maryland Jockey Club closed off nearly 7,000 grandstand seats, citing the 'safety and security of all guests and employees.'
