Connecticut’s gaming tribes, the Mohegan and Pequot tribes, aren’t ready to commit to a date to break ground on their joint East Windsor casino. They missed their target last year, and don’t want to do the same this year, they say.
Foxwoods CEO and President Felix Rappaport last week told the Hartford Courant, “I would certainly say it is fair to say in the first quarter of this calendar year. What you’re likely to see in the early part of 2018 has a lot more to do with demolition and site preparation.”
Rappaport appeared in a joint interview with Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment CEO Mario Kontomerkos.
Both declined to comment on whether the Department of the Interior’s declining to give an unequivocal approval of the tribes’ gaming compact amendments that they signed with the state in order to be able to operate a commercial casino. The tribes and the state don’t feel confident enough about the legality of the amendments without the cover of the department’s approval.
However, Rappaport sounded confident. “We have the best experts politically and legally to handle our side of the question. I believe we are on the right side of the question.”
Regarding the lack of a timetable, Rappaport said, “Even under the best of circumstances, it is often difficult to take a complex project and all projects of this magnitude are complex and have it be right on time.”
The CEOs have hired JCJ Architecture, the California-based general contractor Tutor Perini Building Corp.; construction manager Bertino & Associates and the marketing firm of Cronin of Glastonbury.
The exact plans are necessary so that East Windsor’s building department can review and approve them. So far, nothing has been submitted.
The legislature last year gave the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegan tribes and their joint authority MMCT Venture the go-ahead to build a satellite casino in East Windsor, just fourteen miles away from where the $960 million MGM Springfield is planning a fall opening.
The tribes regard that casino as a dagger aimed at their vitals, and MGM returns that regard with twice as much vehemence, which has translated into several court challenges and intense lobbying of lawmakers to try to drum up support for a commercial casino in Bridgeport, which would completely flank the tribal “satellite.”
The $300 million satellite will have 2,000 slot machines, at least 100 gaming tables, restaurants and entertainment.
To force the Interior Department’s hand, the tribes and the state government took it to federal court recently. The lawsuit seeks to force the department to publish the amended compacts in the Federal Register, which would make them enforceable.
At stake for the state is $270 million a year in revenue-sharing from tribal gaming. This is about half of what the state used to take in, and the satellite casino is seen as a way to keep that hemorrhage from growing even larger.
Haste doesn’t necessarily mean success, said Kontomerkos. “Just because they open first, doesn’t mean they will have a superior location, I think we will.”
