The .4 billion 29-story bronze-color tower for the massive Wynn Boston Harbor, the largest private development in the history of the state, is rising on the banks of the Mystic River.
The project is in the city of Everett, across the river from Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.
The developing is happening on land that was once a Monsanto chemical plant, whose aftermath took many months and $30 millions of clean up and the creation of a six-acre waterfront park. The casino resort is scheduled to open June 2019.
It will less than a year after the MGM Springfield, which has a September 2018 completion date.
The Plainridge Park Casino, the Bay State’s first casino and only slots parlor, recently passed the two-year mark. So far, it is the only casino authorized in the 2011 gaming expansion bill to be in operation. But, that will soon change.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission awarded win the rights to build the state’s biggest in September 2014, and Wynn had to slog his way through several separate lawsuits before work could actually begin.
Now it is well underway, and when it is completed Wynn expects to welcome 20,000 visitors daily. Gaming will be spread out on two levels, with more than 3,000 slots, which will be surrounded by dining. The hotel tower will have 650 rooms.
Gintautas Dumcius of the Republican, described the rising behemoth this way: “Whether you’re seeing it from the MBTA’s Newburyport commuter rail line, from Somerville’s Assembly Row area, or spotting the steel structure while driving down one of the local roadways, the construction site is an eye-popping sight.”
Wynn doesn’t believe in building a “box of slots,” as he once called the Plainridge Park slots parlor. His casino will be several degrees of great well above that, or anything like it. It will be 3 million square feet in area, of which 2.4 million will be the structure. When completed, the project will have used 8,000 tons of steel. The casino will sit on top of a 3,000-car parking structure with 30 acres of space.
Besides gaming, the Wynn Boston Harbor will offer an “ultra-premium” spa, one of the largest ballrooms in the region, plus 13 restaurants.
Visitors coming into the hotel lobby will be welcomed by the iconic $28 million Popeye the Sailor statue created by Jeff Koons, long owned by Wynn, which will be brought to Massachusetts from Nevada.
During a press conference and tour of the construction site, Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Boston Harbor, told reporters, “We just planted the ‘living shoreline,’ so now we’ll see growth out in that area and it will result in a beautiful harborwalk that will surround the perimeter with a big event lawn and lots of outdoor space for the public to use.”
He added, “They’ll be able to walk here, bicycle here, of course drive or take mass transit, but we’re trying to provide easy access for all.”
MGM Springfield
The $950 million MGM Springfield is moving forward aggressively to hire people before the September 2018 opening. It is deploying billboards, broadcasting radio, printing advertising and employing digital ads—with TV ads soon to follow. The ads employ slogans such as “Stomach Meet Butterflies” and “Roar With Us, New England.”
The idea is for the public to know that hundreds of job descriptions are already posted.
It has been five years since Springfield unveiled its casino resort proposal to the city.
The 250 plus job descriptions for 3,000 positions are posted on a platform that allows applicants to match up jobs with career skills. The project has committed to creating 3,000 jobs, with more than a third promised to residents of Springfield, with 90 percent coming from the region. The casino developer says it expects to have a $90 million annual payroll with the average salary being $40,000.
Michael Mathis, president of MGM Springfield, released a statement last week that said, “MGM Springfield is creating thousands of jobs for people who want to work with a company that is the global leader in entertainment,” adding, “MGM employees become part of a larger culture of excellence, teamwork and showmanship, no matter the career path they choose.”
Wanda Gispert, who is in charge of MGM’s hiring, told the Republican: “We want MGM Springfield employees to reflect their community, which will ultimately enrich our property and the customer experience.” She added, “We care deeply passionate about developing our workforce because we know a good career has the ability to lift a family and put them on the path to a brighter future.”
In a few months MGM will begin launching several job-training programs, and is working in partnership with Holyoke Community College Center for Culinary Arts to offer cooking and hospitality training.
In a meeting held with Springfield city officials last week, MGM released its “MGM 95 percent Construction Design” document, which Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and other city officials said met the terms of the Host Community Agreement. The $950 million project has officially been upgraded to a $960 million one.
Regarding the deal the city hammered out with the development, Sarno declared, “We drove a tough bargain here in the city of Springfield for the benefit of Springfield, Western Mass., and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” He added, “We’re very pleased with the design. They’re going to put across a first-class establishment.”
Mathis said that the interaction between city officials and MGM “made us better.” He told the Republican, “It’s a really exciting milestone. It was a back and forth over the last few months to make sure we got it exactly right, and that’s what this milestone represents.”
There were some rough spots, particularly in February 2016, when MGM told the city it needed to downsize the project, eliminating the 25-story hotel tower that had been planned and substituting a six-story hotel, but without cutting the number of hotel rooms, which remained 250.
Another at the time controversial change was to move 54 market rate apartments from the casino grounds off-site, but within half a mile of the casino. The exact location has not yet been determined, but it will be in the downtown.
Springfield’s Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy commented, “we are really starting to see the new Springfield take shape.”
The casino project was always intended as a way to rebuild the ravaged South End, which was partially destroyed by a freak tornado in 2011.
In March of 2015, when the groundbreaking was held for the project, Mayor Sarno said “From the storm rises a phoenix.”
Meanwhile MGM’s activities in trying to drum up support for a $600 million MGM casino with 2,000 slots in Bridgeport, Connecticut have set tongues wagging in the Bay State, where some feel that MGM shouldn’t let anything interfere with its Springfield project.
Asked about the possibility of a Connecticut casino, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said the state will hold all casino developers to the promises they have made.
“I think our hope and our expectation is that all of the commitments that were made by the casino operators here in the Commonwealth are going to be delivered on, and I know that’s what certainly the mayors in those two communities expect as well, and we’re going to hold them to those commitments,” said the governor.
He noted that Governor Dannel Malloy is giving MGM no encouragement.
He added, “But my view on this is MGM has met the deadlines people have set for them, some of the issues with respect to their construction schedule were due to things that were outside their control.”
Meanwhile, the town of Northampton, one of the neighbors to the Springfield casino, has applied to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for $100,000 from the casino’s Community Mitigation Fund to be used to attract casino visitors. The money would be spent on advertising and marketing.
The city has conducted an economic and fiscal study on how the casino might impact its economy. The study concluded that the city might lose as much as $8 million per year in recreational spending to the casino.
The commission has said that the city is eligible to apply for the funds, even though it wasn’t eligible to be considered a “surrounding community,” entitled to a yearly stipend.
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz told 22 News “I want to ensure that Northampton is in a position to promote and market the tremendous retail, dining, entertainment, and arts and cultural opportunities available just a short drive from Springfield.”
