MGM Resorts this week celebrated the groundbreaking for the 0 million MGM Springfield that will be built on 14.5 acres in the South End of Massachusetts’s third largest city.
Several hundred well-wishers attended the ceremony that was held in front of the old Zanetti school, which will be one of the buildings eventually razed to make way for the casino. The project is seen as the largest development in the region in many decades. The South End was devastated by a freak tornado in 2011.
The MGM project is seen as the way for that part of the city to rise like a Phoenix from the ruins. It is seen as a casino development that celebrates its urban roots by utilizing many of the historic buildings of the South End including the iconic former state armory.
MGM CEO Jim Murren, referring to recently announced proposals by neighboring Connecticut to add three casinos, declared, “We’re No. 1 one in Vegas, and we’ll be No. 1 in New England, regardless of what Connecticut does.”
Other VIPS attending the celebration were MGM President Bill Hornbuckle, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby.
The Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, who operate the Connecticut casinos, for their part reacted to the groundbreaking by throwing down the gauntlet. “Today, competition on our borders is a reality.” The proposed new casinos could add 1,800 slots to the border area.
Murren said, “That’s not entertainment. It might raise some revenue but it doesn’t create many jobs. I think the people of Massachusetts, at least, will vastly prefer to go to a brand-new luxury resort than a box of slots on the Connecticut border.”
MGM is planning to open the casino resort in 2017. When completed the MGM Springfield will have 3,000 slot machines, 75 gaming tables and a hotel with 250 rooms, plus retail shops, restaurants, meeting space, as well as office and residential units.
Besides creating about 3,000 permanent jobs for the city and region, MGM will pay Springfield $17.6 million annually.
Meanwhile the Springfield City Council got its first look at the three-block casino overlay district, which sets the boundaries for the casino project. Once the council has final site plans in hand it will begin to schedule public hearings and a vote.
The Planning Board has already unanimously voted to recommend approval of the district.
MGM and the Springfield Historical Commission remain at odds over one building that the commission wants the casino developer to preserve, an old YMCA building, currently the home of an alcohol treatment center. The commission has voted approval for MGM’s plans for three other historical properties.
The building was built in 1907. MGM wants to demolish it. It has offered to reproduce the building’s architectural features elsewhere in a place that would be visible from the street. Some commissioners liked that, others did not. This led to a split vote that leaves the question up in the air since a commissioner who could have cast a deciding vote was absent.
The city commission plans to send a letter to the state Historical Commission outlining its split decision and asking the state commission to review the issue.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has the final say on whether the city will have to preserve the YMCA building or may proceed with demolishing it.
Commenting on the groundbreaking and the historical issues that remain to be resolved MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis told the Boston Herald, “It’s really turning into a construction site. We’re disappointed we’re not quite complete with the historic issues. They’re really concerned about preserving some of the great historic structures on the site. They had a laundry list of issues and, one by one, we’ve tackled them all with our design and we’re a better project for it.”
Slots Parlor
Massachusetts’s first casino, the Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, plans to open June 24 with 1,250 slots. Harness racing will begin at the racino on April 1.
The casino will be the first to open under the Bay State’s 2011 gaming expansion law, which authorized one slots parlor and three casino resorts, each in a different part of the state.
It will have about 500 employees. Jobs are the name of the game for the four gaming facilities. That’s the reason lawmakers gave for passing the law, that and the hopes of raising hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for both the state, the host communities, such as Plainville, and local government.
Plainridge is expected to gross $250 million annually, paying the state 40 percent, with 9 percent set aside to help the horse racing industry.
The slots parlor will also have nine restaurants, including the Slacks Oyster House and Grill, a reference to one nickname of the town: Slackville. There will also be the Doug Flutie-themed Flutie’s Sports Pub, with memorabilia from Flutie’s NFL and college football career.
Penn National Gaming is spending over $125 million to reconstruct the racing facility and construction workers are still swarming over the addition to the racing building. It is also spending about $4 million to improve local roads.
Penn National President and CEO Tim Wilmott issued a statement last week, “We are excited to set our opening date for the first casino in Massachusetts. This state-of-the-art facility will offer premier gaming, dining, entertainment and racing options that are unmatched in the region.”
According to the casino’s general manager, Lance George, it will be open 24/7 every day of the year.
The slots parlor is 35 miles from Boston and 18 miles from Providence, Rhode Island.
Because of the slot parlor’s pending opening the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is ramping up to provide active oversight by hiring more regulators.
The number of employees will increase from 52 to 74 over the next few months with two financial investigators and 12 gaming agents slated to join the staff.
The state also plans to increase state troopers by about a dozen officers. These additional officers will be tasked with working with local police to provide enforcement on the casino floor, as required by state law. Two troopers and two gaming agents will be on the floor at any one time.
Wynn Everett
Wynn Resorts last week gave a progress report to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Wynn officials reported that they are increasing the size of the hotel by 125 rooms, to 604, while decreasing the amount of retail space and eliminating a planned nightclub. They are also increasing the parking by 300 spaces.
The decreased retail will not eliminate jobs, according to Wynn Senior Vice President Jacqui Krum because the increased number of hotel rooms will balance out staff positions.
The Wynn report highlighted the fact that local communities are already starting to benefit from the casinos, even though they have not opened year. Wynn has made a total of $1.9 million in payments to several surrounding communities as part of agreements that were required by the commission and state law.
Southeastern Casino
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted last week to extend the deadline for submitting a casino proposal to the final gaming zone that has not yet awarded a license.
Meanwhile KG Urban, the New York based casino development firm that proposes a casino resort along the waterfront of New Bedford, reached a host community agreement with the city government. The agreement, announced by KG and Mayor John Mitchell, would pay the city $4.5 million upfront and $12.5 million annually.
The commission’s vote gives KG Urban and the developers for a Somerset casino proposal until May 4 to complete their applications. KG had missed the January 30 deadline for applying for a license. Crossroads and its Somerset group had asked for another 21 days.
A third development group had previously submitted an application for Brockton.
The commission has said that it hopes to award a license this fall.
