The speaker of the Massachusetts House, Robert DeLeo, has come out publically against an initiative that would authorize a second slots parlor in the Bay State.
DeLeo said last week that lawmakers purposely choose three casino resorts and one slots parlor as the right mix for the state when they adopted the 2011 gaming expansion law. The new proposal would undercut that process.
The proposition would authorize a new slots parlor to be near a horseracing facility. Only two exist. One of them, Plainridge Racecourse, hosts the state’s only slots parlor. The other is Suffolk Downs in Boston. Suffolk Downs was bidding to become the site for the Boston-area integrated resort, but lost out to Wynn Resorts in Everett.
And it’s no surprise that Wynn is opposed to it too.
“It’s not fair to Wynn Resorts,” said Robert DeSalvio, the leader of the company developing a $2.1 billion casino in Everett. “We came into Massachusetts understanding there would be three casinos and one slots parlor under state law, not three casinos and two slots parlors.”
The measure is on the November ballot. If it succeeds, a local referendum would be held in Revere, the site of Suffolk Downs.
DeSalvio said his company in monitoring the situation but hasn’t decided if it’s going to contribute to a campaign to defeat the measure.
Meanwhile, thousands are expected to crowd seven jobs fairs that Wynn plans to hold over the next two weeks in area towns to help it staff the $2.1 billion Wynn Boston Harbor that Wynn has begun building in Everett, along the Mystic River.
Louis Mandarini, president of Laborer’s Local 22 happily declared last week, “People are coming in from all over the place. Wynn Boston Harbor is putting their money up, and we’re more than prepared. This is going to be big for everybody in the business.”
Wynn says the project will create more than 4,000 construction jobs.
Mandarini added, “They’re on a fast track, they want this done yesterday.”
Wynn is trying to make up for lost time imposed on it by several legal challenges, including one by Boston and the town of Somerville, which only recently decided to give up further appeals. The legal hurdles delayed the project by an estimated three years.
The casino is expected to be the largest non-government project in the state’s history. Wynn is aiming at opening the casino by June of 2019.
Now, instead of legal challenges, Wynn is facing a tighter labor market and rising construction prices.
The building contractor for the massive project is Suffolk Construction.
Although the Wynn job is big, it isn’t the only construction going on in the Boston area. There is more than $7 billion in new construction underway. Also, Wynn has committed to using only union labor, which constricts its labor pool. In addition, it is committed to hiring most of its workers from the Everett area.
Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Boston Harbor, reiterated that commitment last week when he said, “Wynn is absolute in our commitment to keep as much spending as possible close to home during our nearly three-year construction phase, particularly with minority, women and veteran-owned vendors.”
Experts say this will drive up costs. They have increased 20 percent since the Great Recession. They could increase another 15 percent by the end of the decade.
Currently the work consists of cleaning up the 33-acre former chemical plant. That work began in February, but ground to a halt for several months when Somerville challenged an environmental permit.
MGM Springfield
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has awarded nearly $250,000 in mitigation money to the town of West Springfield for the redesign of Memorial Avenue, the main street that leads into downtown Springfield, a thoroughfare expected to be one of the main roads used by patrons of the casino that is being built in Springfield’s South End.
This will help pay for a $945,000 redesign project. The city was originally awarded $665,000, but the bids came in at $945,000 because of new state guidelines for roads.
The $950 million casino resort, expected to open in 2018 is currently building the parking garage and demolishing existing buildings.
The old Union House Hotel, the third oldest building in the historical downtown area, will be partially demolished with its façade retained—to be incorporated into the new structure.
Eventually 850,000 square feet of residential, dining, retail, gaming, hotel and entertainment will spread over three city blocks on 14.4 acres.
