Fairfax Casino Records & A GMU Professor's Change of Heart
FOIA records detail the relationship between Comstock CEO Chris Clemente and GMU Professors.
Yesterday, on the floor of the Senate of Virginia, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) lashed out at opponents of his Fairfax casino legislation, claiming they’re “doing the bidding of” out-of-state gaming giant MGM.
Yet records provided today in response to a FOIA request to George Mason University suggest a financial relationship between the proposed Fairfax casino developer Comstock Holding Companies and the University, a relationship that may help explain a prominent professor’s change of heart on the project.
The Professor in 2023
In February of 2023, Matt Blitz covered the opposition to Sen. David Marsden’s (D-Fairfax) ultimately rejected Fairfax casino legislation in the Virginia Mercury. At that time, Professor Terry Clower, Northern Virginia Chair and professor of public policy in GMU’s Schar School of Policy and Government, was unequivocal in his skepticism about a casino in Fairfax County:
“My first thought [when seeing the bill] was why,” Clower told the Mercury. “My second thought was why the hell why.”
Casinos today are more than just gaming, explained Clower; they are huge entertainment venues and a “destination” complete with restaurants, shopping, hotels and concert halls. The justification for their development is not simply that they will attract local residents to spend money there, but that they will attract others from far and wide to bring new money to the local economy.
“That’s getting to be a much harder argument because of the ubiquitousness of the casinos themselves,” Clower said.
Currently, a very large MGM-branded casino sits across the Potomac River from Alexandria in National Harbor. Another casino is in Baltimore. Four more are under development in the commonwealth. The question becomes how many of these massive entertainment centers can be supported in the market, Clower said.
Furthermore, he said, if a casino is built but isn’t successful, it may still pull spending and revenue from other local businesses, reorienting the economy around one massive attraction and “hollowing out” surrounding neighborhoods. And, in a worst-case scenario, the casino could just close.
“Then you got this big empty shell sitting there that depresses local property until you eventually have to raze it and redevelop it,” said Clower. “Then you have lost all resources and effort.”
Despite the continued need for development, Clower said building a casino along the Silver Line would signal panic.
“I can’t help but think of it as being in a way a measure of economic development desperation,” he said.
As you can see, Professor Clower ran through a litany of arguments against a casino project in Fairfax, arguments that seem to hold up today (or, in the case of market saturation, are more powerful due to the added competition in Petersburg).
The Professor in 2025
Despite the professor’s comments in 2023, he joined the panel of a January 7, 2025 online Fairfax County NAACP Entertainment Complex Community Conversation, an event moderated by journalist Michael Lee Pope, and made a strong case in favor of a casino project in Fairfax. As reported in Annandale Today:
“Fairfax County needs the tax revenue,” said Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. The commercial tax base is facing slower growth, which means the county will need to raise the tax rate and is likely to impose a meals tax.
According to Clower, the taxes generated by the casino and an entertainment complex could reduce the tax burden on residents.
And as Scott McCaffrey reported in FFXnow:
A casino operation could deliver “placemaking” to Tysons and help replenish state and local tax coffers, he said.
“I think it’s the best option going forward,” Clower told attendees.
You can watch the video of the event to get a feel for the professor’s advocacy, but needless to say, it confused many opponents of the project. What could possibly explain such a change of heart on the part of a presumably objective, wonky professor at a prominent public university?
A FOIA Request & Responsive Records
On January 15, 2025, I submitted a FOIA request to George Mason University for “all communications to/from Professor Terry Clower containing the term ‘Comstock’” and restricted the request to records from July 1, 2024 until that day. Comstock Holding Companies, Inc. is the company behind the proposed casino project, and Chris Clemente is their CEO.
Today, the University produced a set of records at no cost and withheld one record under “the exemption § 2.2-3705.1(12) – Contract Negotiations & Proprietary Records.” The communications below shed light on the relationship between George Mason University, Professor Clower, Dean of the Schar School Mark Rozell, and Comstock CEO Chris Clemente. They may also provide context for the “study” Surovell referenced on the Senate floor yesterday.
On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, Carolina Skelly wrote to Professor Rozell “on behalf of Chris Clemente,” copied Clemente on the email, and expressed interest in engaging the Schar School “to conduct a comprehensive study on the potential economic benefits of establishing a large-scale, mixed-use entertainment district development…”
That same day, Rozell forwarded Skelly’s email to Clower, stating: “Please pass this along to your colleague who offered to help. It appears that Comstock Co. will provide all the needed data, so the scope of work with the tight deadline may not be a challenge. Let me know.”
On December 10 and 11, Rozell and Clower discussed the Comstock proposal and pricing. Although it appears the price has been redacted, we can see that Clower is concerned about public access to the report on December 10:
On December 11, Clower and Rozell seemed to come to an agreement concerning compensation, a “finder’s fee,” and “school indirect.”
Fast forward a week.
On December 18, Niki Zimmerman, president of the Fairfax NAACP, sent an email inviting Clower to participate in the Entertainment Complex Community Conversation. Clower forwarded the email to Rozell that day, stating “I assume we are not doing any work for Chris on this project. If we are, I would want to disclose that before accepting their invitation.”
Fast forward to 2025.
On January 6, Comstock’s Executive Vice President of Development John Harrison sent Chris Clemente and Carolina Skelly an email with attachments related to the Encore Boston Harbor Casino.
Clemente forwarded that email the same day to Rozell, including a message confirming “[w]e would like to move forward with the study so I have attached information about the Boston Encore Resort and Casino, which is the model for the gaming component of our proposed Tysons development.”
You can download the Boston attachments here:
Despite knowing that Clemente wanted to proceed with the study, Rozell forwarded the above emails to Clower the next day - the day of the Fairfax NAACP event.
To my knowledge, Clower didn’t reveal this relationship during the NAACP panel on January 7, though I don’t know if he informed the organizers of a potential conflict of interest at the last minute.
The next day, Clower emailed Rozell, requesting Clemente’s email address and remarking: “Talked to Ramadan this evening to finalize a scope for the Surovell project. Seems to be progressing far.” Clower then forwarded Clemente’s email address to Bud Weinstein.
And, finally, on January 9, Clower contacted his colleague Bud Weinstein, presumably about the proposal for Clemente.
As I continue, motivated in part by Surovell’s floor accusations, to dig into these and other financial entanglements, we’re sure to encounter more questions than answers. But as it pertains to Professor Clower’s apparent change of heart about a casino in Fairfax, Comstock seems more likely to be the prime mover than Surovell’s MGM boogeyman.
Tracy Schar works for Comstock: https://ir.comstockcompanies.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=85483487-ac3c-4167-8922-9b2ef50ddfce
Teresa A. Schar works for Comstock: https://www.vpap.org/donors/160968-teresa-schar/
Thank you for your effort to help educate the community about this casino proposal!