MGM Resorts, which is building an 0 million casino resort in Springfield, saw its shares rising in price last week after it announced that it was forming a real estate investment trust MGM Growth Properties that will focus on building and owning casino resorts, such as Mandalay Bay, the Mirage, the Luxor, etc.
Key MGM executives, including CEO James Murren, President William Hornbuckle and MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis met this week with officials of the city of Springfield to discuss the company’s recent announcements downsizing the resort that it plans to build in the city’s South End.
MGM’s top men reaffirmed their company’s commitment to the city. Murren said that MGM has never wavered from that pledge: to provide 2,000 permanent casino jobs, 3,000 construction jobs and to spend over $800 million on the project, which is scheduled to open in September 2018.
Murren said the project would be a better one because of the elimination of the 25-story hotel with a six-story hotel with the same number of rooms: 250. He said the new design would pour more energy into reviving the downtown area. He repeated the company’s assurances that the 14 percent decrease in the footprint of the resort would be mostly “back of the house” space and would barely impact the gaming space. It will, however, reduce retail square footage by 38 percent.
Some council members have criticized removing the hotel tower from the skyline as subtracting much of the casino resort’s “wow” factor.
The executives promised to make a full presentation on the plan changes at a city council meeting in mid-November.
Mayor Domenic Sarno accepted the apologies of the MGM executives for the communications breakdown.
Murren said that considering how much time and money his company has so far expended on the project that it was ironic to hear so many naysayers predicting that MGM would abandon Springfield. The company has spent $200 million so far on costs that include paying for the gaming license and spending money on election advocacy.
“I have personally made commitments to the residents of Springfield and beyond and those conversations energize me every day to open a world-class urban resort that will change the future for all of Western Massachusetts,” Mathis said.
Any changes that depart significantly from the project approved by the voters would need a positive vote by the city council and mayor.
Mayor Sarno called the project the largest economic development project in the history of the region. He declared, “This is a partnership with the city and the residents, and we need to continue to work in unison when it comes to the communication issues.”
Meanwhile MGM has closed its community services office in the down area. The office will reopen after the New Year within the casino’s “footprint.” According to a company spokesman, “During the transition, MGM Springfield team members remain available to the community and can easily be reached at 413-273-5000. People also are invited to stop by our administrative offices located at One Monarch Place, Suite 910.”
Plainridge Park Casino
The gaming commission was scheduled to hold a meeting this week on the request by Plainridge Park Casino to hold 115 harness racing dates. The racino hopes to eventually reach the point where it can offer 125 days of racing. Later the board is scheduled to hold a hearing on Brockton Fairgrounds’ application to hold thoroughbred racing there. The next day the commission will consider Suffolk Downs request to have six racing days in order to keep its license active.
Southeastern casino zone
Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby last week said that he could envision a situation where a tribal casino and a commercial casino could co-exist, although they would probably cannibalize each other.
With that in mind the commission is moving forward with processing the license application from Mass Gaming & Entertainment/Rush Street Gaming, which proposes a casino resort at the Brockton Fairgrounds, at the same time that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe moves forward with its own Indian casino in Taunton.
“They can coexist,” Crosby told WGBH’s “Greater Boston” radio show. “They would cannibalize one another. Neither one of them would do as well.”
The tribe’s state gaming compact stipulates that if a commercial casino operates in the same region that the tribe won’t have to pay the state any share of its revenues. The commercial casino, on the other hand, will have to pay 25 percent of its revenue.
“It would not be as desirable,” said Crosby. “Nobody wants four casinos. Nobody wants two in southeastern Mass. But we owe it to the commercial folks to take a look at what they’re telling us, see what their argument is and as you said there are hurdles still in the way of the tribe. It is not a done deal.”
He noted that it is possible the tribe’s casino might be delayed for years by lawsuits. If that happened the southeastern part of the state would not benefit from the economic stimulus of a casino.
The Brockton developers propose a $677 million casino on the fairgrounds, which, they say, will attract 4 million visitors each year and create $2 billion in revenue during its first five years of operation.
Mass Gaming and Entertainment presented details of its plan to the commission this week. It is the only applicant remaining for the commercial license. It proposes a red brick casino complex harkening to traditional New England architecture. It would have a 92,000 SF casino floor with 2,100 slots, 124 gaming tables and a poker room. It would have a 250-room hotel and spa, dining, a lounge and a small convention space.
Construction would take about 30 months, employing about 1,400 construction workers, with 1,500 permanent jobs after the casino opens.
Wynn Everett
In an interview on a Boston radio station Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby commented about the very public feud between developer Steve Wynn and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh.
Crosby predicted that the city’s lawsuits to try to overturn the commission’s decision would not stop the project. “It’s not going to kill the project,” he said.
The city has also sued to challenge the granting of environmental permits to the project. If this lawsuit is successful, said Crosby, the applicant would simply have to redo the permits.
Noting the long-distance shouting match between Walsh and Wynn, Crosby quipped, “I don’t think either one of them has been at their best on this one. But, you know, they’re big boys. They can do their own business.”
While it’s not really the commission’s function to referee between the two sides, “we would if we were asked,” he said.
