Pair of Multibillion-Dollar Projects Gets Formal Launch

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Maryland Day was marked this March 25 by milestones for two projects with a potentially significant impact on the state’s economy.

In Lusby, a groundbreaking ceremony formally launched the $3.8 billion expansion of the Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility, one of the largest investments in the state’s history. Gov. Larry Hogan and Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae of Japan joined Diane Leopold, president of Dominion Energy. The project will create 3,000 temporary construction jobs. Once complete, it will generate an additional $40 million in annual tax revenue to Calvert County, and, according to Hogan, could increase state exports by $5 billion a year.

Later that day, elected officials and executives gathered on the shores of the Potomac River for the groundbreaking of MGM Resorts International’s $1.25 billion National Harbor Resort. In attendance were Hogan, MGM Resorts Chairman & CEO Jim Murren, MGM National Harbor COO Lorenzo Creighton, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker and other local officials.

MGM Resorts plans a 23-story, 300-key luxury hotel, a casino with 3,600 slots and 160 table games, a 3,000‐seat theater, 18,000 square feet of high‐end branded retail, 27,000 square feet of meeting space, 4,800 parking spaces, and restaurants from renowned local and national chefs. The 1 million-square-foot resort is scheduled to open in the second half of 2016. It will employ more than 4,000 people.

Since starting construction last summer, developers have come a long way. According to the Washington Business Journal, Whiting-Turner, the project’s general contractor, has excavated more than 500,000 cubic yards of soil and driven more than 6,000 foundation piles. It has also installed four tower cranes and poured the first slab of concrete.

Photo credit: www.mgmnationalharbor.com