The former Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere, Massachusetts has been closed for six years. Recently a city inspector said that it is “dangerous to life and limb.”
The former racetrack, which opened in 1935 extends over 38 acres. For years the city has pinned its hopes for revitalization on the now empty facility. Once just about every proposal involving the property was connected to gaming in some form. However, Mayor Brian M. Arrigo, says the city is past that.
The mayor wants to change the city’s image and take the city in a direction that doesn’t involve gaming. He put his political prestige behind defeating a proposal that would have authorized a slots parlor in the city—a measure that was tied to a statewide measure that would have allowed a second slots parlor in the Bay State. Both were defeated. The Revere proposal was defeated by a factor of 2-1.
Arrigo, who took office in January envisions the Wonderland property as the key to reviving the city. It’s near a Blue Line station and also near the beach. Nearby hundreds of pricey apartments are being built.
“We want to change the image of Revere to a place where people want to live and where we can grow a sustainable local economy,” the mayor told the Boston Globe. “It’s not downtrodden old Revere anymore.”
Once a thriving racetrack, Wonderland was given a fatal dose of poison when voters adopted a greyhound racing ban. The mayor would like the owners to face reality and start working on something else.
“They have tested my patience,” said Arrigo. “The place is in deplorable condition. And I don’t take that lightly. We had an understanding that it was to be demolished this summer, but obviously that did not happen.” When the mayor was elected he promised to force the owners to do something with the property.
They ignored him and so he obtained a court order that allowed city inspectors inside—the first time they had been on the property in years. They found more than 100 violations, including collapsed ceilings and dangerous electrical systems. Arrigo held off on imposing thousands of dollars of fines when the owners promised to demolish the buildings—but that will cost millions of dollars.
The owners of the facility plead that they are doing everything they can. They issued a statement: “CBW Lending has worked cooperatively with the city of Revere on maintaining and securing the Wonderland property, including daily Revere Police details, as we have worked through the planning and permitting for the safe and orderly demolition of the main building and other structures. We look forward to continuing to work with Mayor Arrigo and Revere officials to support the city’s development goals for the Wonderland area.”
Residents are losing patience just like their mayor. One told the Globe: “It’s a terrible blight on the city. It’s just such a waste to have that place falling down year after year.”
MGM Springfield
The $950 million MGM Springfield Casino in the Bay State’s third largest city is rising on 10 acres that was once nearly flattened by a freak tornado that hit the downtown in June 2011. The casino resort will cover three city blocks.
The project is generating about 3,000 jobs once the casino is open, 2,000 construction jobs and thousands of jobs created by the collateral economic effects of the project, which is committed to obtaining 90 percent of its employees locally.
The mixed use resort besides a six story hotel and, of course, a casino with 3,000 slots and 100 gaming tables, will have a bowling alley, cinemas, retail shopping, restaurants, a spa, an ice rink and convention facilities.
The project, set along Main Street is built to easily allow access to other attrractions in the city, such as Symphony Hall and the MassMutual Center.
A spokesman for MGM told Construction Equipment Guide: “Developing a $950 million resort in the heart of Springfield’s downtown district while seamlessly integrating a number of existing historical buildings, through either total or partial reuse, into the project.”
Construction has begun first on the 1.37 million SF parking garage.
Before that happened, MGM committed to moving the French Congregational Church, an historic 129-year-old Victorian gothic structure 600 feet away to a new location. It wouldn’t have wanted to stay where it was, since that would have been in the middle of the casino gaming floor.
Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno joked that the process of moving the church by raising it on blocks and wheeling it to its new location, “gives a new definition to ‘Holy Rollers.’”
It was, of course, a lot more complicated than that and involved several huge pieces of equipment, including a Liebherr model LR1400 garage crane capable of lifting 440 tons.
Plainridge Park Casino
Revenues at Plainridge Park Casino declined slightly in October, from $12.8 million in September to $12.6 million, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. This is the third month of decline in revenue for the slots parlor, which opened in June of 2015.
Plainridge is the only one of the planned four casinos, including one slots parlor and three casino resorts, that is operating. The rest are in the design or beginning construction phases.
Whatever the ups and downs on the monthly revenue, the fact that the casino is producing a steady revenue is good news for the Plainridge Park Racecourse and helps to keep harness racing there alive.
Numbers, which had fallen alarmingly, have started to climb again—although slowly. Recently 200 gamblers played the horses. The casino has contributed directly to that because it is required to pay 9 percent of its profits to the racetrack to be used for increased purses. This makes for more competitive races and more betting. Players who play on the slot machines often stroll over to watch the harness races.
Bets have doubled to over $15 million since the racino opened. Next year 125 racing days are planned.
Casinos are the best thing that ever happened to horse racing,” one visitor told the Boston Globe. “Look at this place: it’s nice and it’s clean. And there’s plenty of people here. That wasn’t always the case.”
Steve O’Toole, Plainridge Park Racecourse general manager, commented, “We’re really happy with what’s happened here since the casino opened. It’s enabled us to attract higher quality horses to race for bigger purses, and that has added a lot of excitement.”
The “racino” script is a winning one that has been tried at racetracks all over the country. It’s also a winning formula for municipalities in the Bay State, which will get 40 percent of the racino’s total profits.
Although racing has its strong supporters in the Massachusetts statehouse, it also has critics who question why 9 percent of a slot parlor’s revenues should go to prop up a failing industry. One of those critics, political science professor Paul DeBole of Lasell College told the Boston Globe: “I’m not sure it makes sense for government to keep an industry on life support if consumer tastes have changed and the industry is no longer viable.”
