The Cordish Company Revitalizes Downtown s By Creating Entertainment Districts

    When development in most American markets ran for a fresh start in the suburbs in the 1970s, The Cordish Company went with it — that is, until David S. Cordish put his company on hold for several years, when an experience in the higher levels of government gave him a new perspective.
    The Cordish Company’s origins date back to 1910 and encompass four generations of privately-held, family ownership. During the past 10 decades, the company has grown into a multi-billion dollar global conglomerate of businesses defined by two major areas of expertise as one of the leading real estate development companies and most successful entertainment operating businesses in the world.

Going Downtown
    Louis Cordish founded The Cordish Company in 1910, and his son Paul remained active with the company until his early 90s and his passing in March, 2003. In 1968, Paul Cordish’s son, David, founded the real estate division of the company, of which he is president and chairman today.
    All three of David Cordish’s sons — Jonathan, Blake and Reed Cordish — are active in the business. Blake and Reed are vice presidents in the real estate arm of the company, with responsibilities over the entertainment/mixed-use and restaurant/ club divisions. Jonathan Cordish is the chairman of the media/film division as well as an advisor to the private equity investment division.
    The genesis of the company’s current real estate movement, though, can be pinpointed at 1976.
    “My father had worked for Presidents Carter and Reagan,” Reed Cordish says. “He was asked by President Carter to put his development company on hold and to become the first executive director of a new entity called Urban Development Action Grant, the purpose of which was to encourage the revitalization of downtowns by encouraging and assisting private developers to build in cities.
    “When my father returned to private development, after six years in Washington, he came back with this knowledge of the public-private process and a passion for cities and their potential,” Cordish says. “Before this, The Cordish Company focused mainly on suburban development, but after returning from Washington he started a second division of The Cordish Company which focused on downtown, large-scale city developments that would have a significant impact in the cities in which they are located.”
    Over the past 25 years The Cordish Company has become known for first class, large scale developments that create the heartbeat and entertainment for the areas in which they are located.  Examples of Cordish projects include some of the great entertainment developments in the country including Charleston Place in Charleston SC, The Power Plant and Power Plant Live! in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, 4th Street Live! in Louisville, Ky., The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casinos in Hollywood and Tampa, Fla.,  and many others.
    Many of The Cordish Company’s districts and projects involve a blending of uses including entertainment, retail, office, hotel, residential and even gaming. The company internally manages all phases of the development process: site selection, design, construction, leasing, marketing, financing and property management and has long term relationships with the vast majority of the leading national retail/entertainment tenants, including such brand names as The Walt Disney Company (ESPN Zone), Barnes & Noble, SFX/ClearChannel, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Ralph Lauren Polo, Bass Pro Shops, Dave & Busters, The Gap and many others.

The Entertainment Core
    “The one common denominator is that the districts, at their core, contain a central entertainment district that creates the energy and heartbeat for the city and allows these projects to take on unique importance as super-regional destinations,” Cordish says.
    “What we’re doing is combining a wide variety of unique restaurants, cafes, live music venues, clubs, art galleries and other entertainment venues into a cohesive entertainment district that we promote and operate in a first-class, professional manner.
    “You have two powerful elements working together, he says. “The first is this collection of tremendous operators and concepts and entrepreneurs that forms the nucleus and draw for these districts. The second element is that we are able as a landlord to market and promote these districts in a truly unique manner. For instance, almost all of our districts front on large, beautiful outdoor areas,” Cordish says. “Oftentimes we create permanent stages or set them up on weekly basis. We as a landlord promote over 100 concerts a year in these outdoor areas that are more often than not free of charge to the public. These serve as great draws to these downtown districts. The customers, of course, end up fueling the restaurants and bars and create an energy.
    “The projects become the central gathering spot for the community for its important events,” Cordish says. “For example at Fourth Street Live! in Louisville, Ky., we host the Kentucky Derby draw on ESPN  and the University of Louisville pep rally’s to celebreate their teams accomplishments; in Baltimore, the Ravens hold their kickoff celebration for their new season every year at  the Power Plant Live! in Baltimore. These districts take on a very special place in the community.”
More than a development company, The Cordish Company goes hands-on.
“We treat these districts as operating businesses, which is very different than how most developers look at it,” Cordish says. “Most developers come in and build a project and they’re just collecting rent. And we do that in our suburban projects; it’s a good way to make a living. But these downtown districts are truly day-to-day operating businesses, where we’re doing an incredible amount of concerts and events and doing advertising, marketing and security.”

Going Live!
     “Entertainment areas do not occur in every city, and many cities that lack this energy truly desire to have great entertainment areas,” Cordish says. “People love to work and live near where they can be entertained.
         “Unfortunately entertainment areas often run their course without an active group dedicated to their long term success. The difference in Live! districts is that here there’s one overall landlord, The Cordish Company, which stays 100 percent committed to their viability. We control the land and the buildings; we love working with historic buildings when we can. We create the district and the architecture and the outdoor areas. Then we turn around and lease space to the very best national, regional and local entrepreneurs and companies we can find, and continue to keep the projects fresh and relevant over the years.” 
    As a result, districts that were built 10 and 15 years ago remain successful and have become institutions in their communities.
    “Because our projects are so successful and because they stay successful — unlike some other districts — we’re able to hand-pick the best concepts,” Cordish says. “We put those together to create the best synergy among the uses, so that we’ll have in one project a high-end national brand like a Ruth’s Chris Steak House and a mass-appeal company like a Hard Rock combined with tremendous entertainment operators — like a Michael Ault, with his Pangeae and Gryphon in our Paradise Live! in Florida or John Sullivan with McFadden’s — and mix that with the strongest local entrepreneurs.”
    In addition to being an involved landlord, actively running the entertainment core of the districts, The Cordish Company even has created its own concepts and plugged them into the mix, with specific, strategic motives.
    “Because these entertainment districts are so important to The Cordish Company and to the cities in which they are located, we have created a restaurant and entertainment operating division, which owns and operates concepts,” Cordish says. “We mix into these districts some of our own concepts — particular uses that put a district over the top.
    When developing Fourth Street Live!, The Cordish Company began bringing in national powerhouse names and then wanted something that was uniquely Louisville. Since Maker’s Mark is based there, the company approached the brand to create a concept.
    “Bill Samuels (of Maker’s Mark) loved the idea and wanted to support downtown, but they don’t have a restaurant operating division,” Cordish says. “So, we used our operating division, formed an agreement with Maker’s Mark and created and opened the first Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, which is a high-end restaurant and lounge that has been an off-the-chart success — so much so, we’re now taking that concept and expanding it outside Louisville.
    Another example is NASCAR Sports Grille, a 25,000-square-foot, $10 million, 2-level restaurant with a 37-foot media wall, booth-side interactive plasma screens with advanced audio and video capability, and interactive simulators and games.
“NASCAR’s popularity has just grown immensely in the last 10 years, and NASCAR  wanted a partner to come in and create a restaurant concept that would be a cutting-edge, first class experience,” Cordish says of the concept, which is not part of a Cordish district but rather launched in Orlando’s CityWalk and is owned by Universal. “We will grow that brand inside Cordish developments as well as in outside developments when appropriate,” Cordish says.
 “When we find a local operator that we think has tremendous talent, passion and vision, we will work with that operator and give them the infrastructure and support — financially and otherwise — to allow them to grow in their careers. For example there is a long term successful nightclub and entertainment operator in Houston, Jerry Watson, who we worked with on Angel’s Rock Bar which is now fast becoming a dominate national concept.”

Power, Light and Ballparks
    Cordish says the company’s most exciting projects are yet to come.
    In downtown Kansas City, Mo., the company is tackling one its biggest projects to date, the Power & Light District. “It brings to play all of our different skill sets,” Cordish says. “It has over 1 million square feet of office space, four residential towers, retail and world-class entertainment. It’s a $600 million development, so it’s one of the largest in the Midwest. It’s going to be a wonderful collection of national restaurant and entertainment companies. It will have some of our concepts included in it.
“For the layout of the Live! district, it’s our next generation and will be truly cutting edge in the industry — something that grabs people’s attention.”
    The Live! block has a collection of restaurants, clubs and bars that face an outdoor, open-air plaza. Sixty feet in the air above the plaza will be glass-and-steel roof canopy structure that keeps out inclement weather out, over a permanent, built-in stage.
    “Another development that’s capturing national attention is Ballpark Village, which we are developing in partnership with the St. Louis Cardinals,” Cordish says. “Ballpark Village wraps around the new Busch stadium with the balconies of the restaurants and entertainment concepts literally looking into the stadium. The Power & Light district in Kansas City — which commenced construction in 2006 — opens first in 2008, and Ballpark Village follows right behind it in 2009.”                    NCB