Entertainment At The Core
Creating entertainment districts involves starting new tenants for The Cordish Company.
Susan Fishman

Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge in Louisville, Kentucky,features a sophisticated indoor/outdoor “living room,” 148 dining seats, 58 bar seats and 32 outdoor seats.

Perhaps best known for its large-scale, downtown, mixed-use real estate developments, Baltimore-based The Cordish Company has developed a number of unique projects. And one of the common elements running through those projects is that they almost all contain, at their core, an entertainment component, combining unique restaurants, live music venues or lounges into a cohesive entertainment district.

“These districts are significant components of our projects and they are of unique importance to the cities they’re located in,” says Reed S. Cordish, vice president. “They create the heartbeat for the cities they are in and lead to tremendous revitalization and redevelopment.”

The Cordish Company, now in its fourth generation of family ownership, is a multibillion-dollar conglomerate including one of the leading real estate development companies in the United States. The company has development expertise with divisions focused on entertainment and mixed-use, gaming and lodging, sports-anchored districts, shopping and lifestyle retail, office and residential. The company also owns and manages a diverse group of operating businesses, ranging from restaurants/clubs to live music promotion to film/media distribution.

The Cordish Company has unparalleled experience in creating and revitalizing high-profile destinations in urban core locations. Many of the company’s projects involve public/private partnerships. Prime examples are the company’s prominent role in highly successful projects such as The Power Plant and Power Plant Live in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, Fourth Street Live! in Louisville, Kentucky, and Bayou Place in Houston.

Entertainment Districts

Developed in partnership with the City of Baltimore, The Power Plant is considered one of the leading entertainment projects in the United States. The mixed-use project includes the first ESPN Zone in the country, Hard Rock Café, Barnes & Noble, Gold’s Gym and loft offices. Last year, Power Plant attracted over 10 million visitors and generated several million dollars of direct taxes to the public sector. Prior to The Cordish Company’s involvement, the building sat vacant for approximately 10 years in the hands of various developers. Based on its success, The Power Plant is presently being expanded with the construction of an adjacent Pier IV retail/entertainment and office building.           

Another partnership with the City of Baltimore, Power Plant Live! is the redevelopment of 2 vacated city square blocks into a vibrant $35 million entertainment district coupled with loft offices. The project is located 2 blocks from Baltimore’s world famous Inner Harbor. Power Plant Live! is a collection of 15 different entertainment venues including a range of restaurants, bars, comedy, dance clubs and dueling pianos and is anchored by a 1,600-occupancy, state-of-the-art live music venue, Rams Head Live!.

Developed in partnership with the City of Louisville and the State of Kentucky, Fourth Street Live! is a $75 million redevelopment of an antiquated enclosed mall into a vibrant, open-air entertainment district. Located in the heart of the city’s downtown across from the Convention Center, Fourth Street Live! serves as the anchor of a 6-block entertainment district. The project covers the equivalent of 2 city square blocks and features a blending of the best national and regional retail/entertainment tenants including Lucky Strike, Hard Rock Cafe, Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, Borders and more.

Developed in partnership with the City of Houston, the $22 million Bayou Place transformed a vacated convention center into a thriving entertainment project. The development includes the first Angelika Film Center outside of Manhattan, the 3,000 seat live performance Verizon Wireless venue, Hard Rock Café, multiple restaurants, bars and dance clubs. Bayou Place served as a catalyst for an explosion of new entertainment concepts downtown with an economic impact of $250 million. Based on the tremendous success of Bayou Place, The Cordish Company, in partnership with the City of Houston, undertook the $20 million transformation of the Albert Thomas Convention Center.  The development, Bayou Place Office, includes 150,000 square feet of Class A office space and a 100-space parking facility.

Entertainment Concept Investors

Entertainment Concept Investors, Inc. (“ECI”), the restaurant and club division of The Cordish Company, opened the premier NASCAR Sports Grille at Universal City Walk in Orlando, Florida, in 2006.

About 3 and a half years ago, The Cordish Company launched Entertainment Concept Investors, Inc. (“ECI”), the restaurant and club division of The Cordish Company, which designs, builds, owns and operates restaurant, lounge and live entertainment concepts in approximately 30 markets across the country, often placing them together in synergistic entertainment districts.

“The company created ECI as a vehicle to make sure these districts were as great as possible and offered the best mix of concepts possible so that they stayed special and kept their success and importance over long periods of time,” notes Cordish. “We utilize ECI to create that perfect concept that really complements one of our overall districts.”

ECI has licensed several leading national and international brands in this expansion, including Hard Rock and Hard Rock Live, and assumed exclusive international food and beverage rights for brands such as NASCAR and Maker’s Mark. The company currently has more than $1 billion in construction focusing primarily on sports-anchored districts.

In 2005, ECI debuted Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge at Fourth Street Live! in Louisville, Kentucky. The 5,500-square-foot upscale restaurant and lounge features a sophisticated indoor/outdoor “living room,” 148 dining seats, 58 bar seats and 32 outdoor seats.  Designed by the renowned Chicago-based firm Knauer and Associates, the venue has a total cost exceeding $2 million. This innovative, upscale concept subtly emphasizes the trademark red wax of Maker’s Mark and is highlighted by warm, rich woods; luxurious black leather banquettes; bourbon brown furnishings; wood floors; mohair chairs and a dramatic, stacked, double fireplace. The 57.8-foot wood-topped bar is outlined in glass and under lit with soft, white lighting. Upon entering, guests are met with an entire wall of back-lit Maker’s Mark bottles, the trademark Maker’s wax dripping from the ceiling and a spectacular “wall of fire” behind the hostess stand. 

“We wanted a high-end experience for the district,” notes Cordish. “It has this very high-end, chef-driven, sleek atmosphere and design, and is a great complement to the overall district.”

The 25,000-square-foot, $10 million,  two-level NASCAR Sports Grille features state-of-the-art audio and visual attractions for the passionate sports fan, including a 37-foot media wall, booth-side interactive plasma screens with advanced audio and video reception.

In 2006, ECI opened the premier NASCAR Sports Grille at Universal City Walk in Orlando, Florida. In addition to quality food, the 25,000-square-foot, $10 million, two-level NASCAR Sports Grille features state-of-the-art audio and visual attractions for the passionate sports fan, including a 37-foot media wall, booth-side interactive plasma screens with advanced audio and video reception. Museum-quality sports memorabilia provides additional décor along with a 20-foot artistic adaptation of the NEXTEL Cup flanking the main entrance. A retail shop, featuring NASCAR merchandise, is located on the ground floor of the restaurant. 

In addition, ECI will be unveiling a new premium movie theater and restaurant venue, The Mainstreet Theater, in partnership with AMC Theaters. The company recently announced an agreement with AMC Entertainment, Inc. to revitalize two historic landmark buildings, the Midland and Empire Theatres, in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The Midland Theatre will be revitalized into a dynamic live performance theatre, restaurant and bar and will anchor the northwest corner of the Power & Light District. The Empire Theatre will serve as the District’s southwest corner anchor and will be restored to operate a unique AMC movie theatre complex, restaurant and bar.

AMC and The Cordish Company have created a partnership called Midland-Empire Partners, LLC (“MEP”) to design and develop both properties. In addition, plans include revitalization of the Midland Office Building into a major residential development including 40 loft units. AMC also plans to give all rights to the Power & Light District name, which it has held, to the downtown project.

“The theaters will be state-of-the-art in technology and seating and entirely digital — so they will be some of the first all-digital theaters in the country. And we’re creating a two-level restaurant, wine bar and showcase dessert kitchen off the lobby. So the idea is that it becomes a very inclusive concept.”

In live entertainment, ECI developed the 3,000-seat Verizon live performance venue in Houston, Texas, with SFX/ClearChannel; the 6,000-seat Pier 6 outdoor amphitheatre in Baltimore, Maryland; a 1,600-person venue in Baltimore and a 5,000-capacity venue in live entertainment in Hollywood, Florida. Presently, ECI is adding a 5,000-capacity venue to a major development in Toronto, Woodbine Live!; a 1,500-capacity venue as a part of Ballpark Village with the St. Louis Cardinals, as well as a 3,000-capacity venue in Kansas City, Missouri, as part of the Power & Light District.

Cordish says the company is currently being approached by a wide variety of projects and cities and is selecting the best opportunities.

“With all of these concepts, we’re really going to be looking for high-profile projects that are unique and that are a significant generator of excitement and people in a particular area.”

The Cordish Company is also developing concepts of its own, including a variety of restaurant and entertainment concepts ranging from the sleek, chef-driven Vin (pronounced Vine) in Towson and Houston to the stylish Mosaic Lounge in Baltimore and Houston. The company teams with great talent that perhaps have not had the opportunity to move into a true ownership position or the strength of company to be able to expand nationally.

“We’ve found that partnerships with these talented individuals and with the strength we can give them with our company have created some wonderful results,” says Cordish. “We’ve teamed with some really great chefs and allowed some talented individuals to move to the next level in their careers and given them the strength to succeed and the power to compete against national restaurant companies in a tough business. That’s really an avenue we’ve enjoyed, and we’ll keep growing in that regard, as well.”


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