Long-awaited demolition of Pimlico may start next week

The long-awaited demolition of Pimlico may be only days away from getting started as the rebuilding of the racetrack moves toward a hoped-for reopening in time for Preakness 2027.

“Parts of the backstretch could begin late next week,” Maryland Jockey Club president and general manager Bill Knauf said in a text message Wednesday to Horse Racing Nation.

Flashback 2024: Maryland governor OKs Pimlico rebuild.

Knauf and Gary McGuigan, the executive vice president of the Maryland Stadium Authority, shared demolition and redevelopment plans during a Tuesday meeting of the Pimlico Community Advisory Board in Baltimore. Some of the details were posted by April Smith on her Friends of Pimlico page on Facebook.

A timetable showed existing barns, outbuildings and the old, condemned grandstand near the quarter pole are scheduled to be torn down between this month and early September. The demolition of the middle grandstand would begin early next month, and the 60-year-old clubhouse would come down between early September and mid-November.

“There was no specific date given,” Knauf said about the start of the teardown. “No exact date yet for the grandstand. There will be a press event, for sure, when it goes to the grandstand. Probably early August.”

The price tag for the demolition is $14.3 million, according to the Clark Construction Group website.

Final plans for the $400 million rebuilding of the new Pimlico have not been formalized, but the latest version was presented Tuesday by Knauf and McGuigan as well as representatives of Clark and the Ayers Saint Gross architecture firm. The state government approved the sale of bonds to pay for the redevelopment.

“The good news, looks like there is no hotel,” said Smith, who is fighting to preserve Pimlico’s history. “The bad news, everything will be destroyed.”

The racecourse infield already is being excavated for the laying of pipe and conduit ahead of this summer’s demolition, according to Clark Construction.

While Pimlico is being torn down and rebuilt, next year’s Preakness is scheduled to be held May 16 at Laurel Park. It will be the last one run by The Stronach Group, which is turning over its ownership of the race to the new Maryland Jockey Club. The Laurel property is expected to be sold by Stronach by the time the new Pimlico is completed.