THE PHILLY LIVE! dream included a hotel, underground parking and a movie theater. The dream sprawled over 300,000 square feet, meant hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the city, and more than 1,000 permanent jobs.

More than 3 years later, the Philly Live! reality is a 60,000-square foot cluster of nine businesses, enclosed; a 40,000-square foot outdoor event space, ideal for concerts; and a parking lot, all where the Spectrum stood.

Baltimore-based The Cordish Companies, partnering on the project with the race track’s operator, told the Star in June 2010 that construction would start that fall, with the help of generous tax breaks from the city....

But, the Star has learned, no construction has started and no building permits have been sought. Rezonings for the project were granted four years ago.

Cordish is now telling the city it hopes to break ground in early 2012. The company wouldn’t comment on the project Wednesday. Its local partner, Woodbine Entertainment Group, seemed to suggest the delay was related to Cordish sorting out plan details with the city.

At a mostly routine meeting in Riverhead Tuesday of a council charged with boosting the Long Island economy, its co-chairman dropped a morsel of news -- that he had succeeded in getting a Baltimore developer to renew interest in developing the area around the Nassau Coliseum.

Co-chairman Stuart Rabinowitz, president of Hofstra University, said during the three-hour meeting of the Long Island Economic Development Council that he had "solicited interest" from a developer in the 77-acre site around the Coliseum in Uniondale.

This month, he put the finishing touches on a $10 million upgrade to Power Plant Live!, and right now, he's building Maryland Live!, a controversial slots and entertainment complex near Arundel Mills mall, which should be finished next year. He's even trademarked the term "Live!" "If anybody else in the U.S. wants to do a Live! district, they can do it, but they better not call it Live!," he said with a smile. "We've copyrighted it."

Fix one Baltimore problem that makes this city a better place.

The big thing that would change Baltimore is a Maglev (short for magnetic levitation) train like they have in Japan, China and Singapore. It would take you from Washington to Baltimore in about 15 minutes. That would change Baltimore. Washington is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Baltimore is one of the cheapest -- either for office rent or home purchases. If we could connect the two cities quickly, Baltimore would blossom. All its problems would go away. They have Maglev trains all over the world, and the U.S. government has been talking about it forever. Go do it.

A large new nightclub and lounge called Mosaic will open at 4th Street Live April 13, the operators have announced.

Instead, company vice president Blake Cordish told me this week, the company now is working on a deal for a $245 million project that would include a 600-room, four-star hotel, 200 apartments and a specialty grocery store.
Cordish, which developed the Fourth Street Live entertainment hub, has been something of a lightning rod for criticism, and skeptics are sure to scoff at its effort to revive the long-delayed Center City.

I wonder if this place will be dead when there aren't events going on.

I was just in Philly last weekend for the Royals...and thought the same thing seeing the beginning phases of that development open....but then thought between football, baseball, hockey, basketball games...along with concerts....they have a lot of events to draw from.