FL: CDI Plans to Demolish Calder Grandstand

Blood-Horse

Calder Casino & Race Course is said to be planning to demolish its seven-story grandstand/clubhouse building beginning in December after a two-month meet operated by Gulfstream Park.

Calder parent company Churchill Downs Inc. hasn’t commented on the development.

“(Calder officials) told us that they plan to start tearing down their building right after the end of our Gulfstream Park West meet,” Gulfstream general manager P.J. Campo said during a recent interview.

Campo said Calder told Gulfstream it won’t open the building to the public during the 40-day Gulfstream Park West meet that runs from Oct. 7-Nov. 28. Gulfstream, which operates the meet but doesn’t control the Calder building, will set up tents in which fans can bet and be protected from rain and other elements.

Officials at Calder and CDI didn’t respond to an e-mail and didn’t return phone calls made July 23-27. Previously, CDI director of investor relations Courtney Norris said the company has a policy of declining to comment on requests for details about its plans for Calder because of Securities and Exchange Commission rules that prohibit release of forward-looking information.

This year’s meet at Calder will be the second in which Gulfstream is using the Gulfstream Park West name under terms of a lease agreement the two tracks and their parent companies signed last summer. The deal ended the tracks’ bitter racing dates dispute that culminated in head-to-head weekend racing between July 2013 and June 2014.

CDI, which operates slot machines at Calder, is getting out of the racing business there and no longer needs the building that opened in 1971.

Campo noted that during the Gulfstream Park West meet the building’s sixth and seventh floors will be open for the stewards, placing judges, Equibase chart callers, the announcer, and personnel of companies that time and film races.

Gulfstream will put up several tents outside the Calder building, Campo said. The several hundred seats between the building and the racing surface will remain in place.

When Calder tears down its grandstand, it will follow the work it did in April when it demolished barns that had about 1,400 stalls in an area of the barn area it has designated for a non-racing commercial re-development. Calder and CDI have not released any details of the plans for re-development.

There have been reports that Calder is considering the barn area for a transportation logistics center for trucks that travel between airports in Florida or for a hotel.

There are reports the grandstand/clubhouse contains asbestos and would require a traditional demolition rather than an implosion. The building is connected by a covered walkway to the casino Calder opened in January 2010.