SugarHouse keeps junk debt rating in proposed refinancing

Moody's Investors Service on Thursday praised SugarHouse Casino's proposed refinancing of $349 million in debt as a credit positive because it will extend the Fishtown casino's debt deadlines, but still gave the new borrowings a low-junk rating because of hight-debt levels.

The B3 rating on $300 million of senior secured notes and the higher B2 rating on a $95 million revolving credit facility "considers the risk of new supply opening within Philadelphia in the next few years," Moody's said in a reference to the planned casino in South Philadelphia's Stadium District.

That project, Live! Hotel & Casino, to be developed by Cordish Cos. of Baltimore and the owners of Parx Casino in Bensalem, has been stalled by a Pennsylvania Supreme Court appeal by Market East Associates LP, which wanted to put a casino at Eighth and Market Streets in Center City.

Moody's maintained its B2 corporate credit rating on SugarHouse, which had $306 million in net revenue last year. That compares to $280 million in net revenue in 2012, according to a 2013 Moody's report.