The effort to rebuild Pimlico and keep the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore appeared to take a significant blow Thursday after Senate President Mike Miller threw his support behind moving the race to Laurel.
Miller, a Prince George’s County Democrat who is the longest-tenured Senate president in the entire U.S., said as a historian he loves Pimlico. But he also said the price tag for a possible redevelopment of the 149-year-old track is too high for a project that “does nothing for the communities around it.”
“If you’re for business and you’re for demographics, it should be in Laurel,” Miller said at the Maryland Economic Development Association’s winter conference in Annapolis.
“I’m a historian, I’d like to see it in Baltimore and keep it in Baltimore,” said Miller, a day after the opening of the 2019 Maryland General Assembly. “But guess what? It’s $400 million to knock over everything.”
Miller’s comments come almost a month after the Maryland Stadium Authority released a 73-page report showing a redevelopment of Pimlico would cost $424 million. Gov. Larry Hogan said last week the state is “very early in the process” and has “a lot of talking to do.”