Dive Brief:
- Wynn Resorts' $2.1 billion Everett, MA casino project is a go after the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection granted the developer a 50-year environmental permit, according to the Boston Herald.
- As part of its decision to issue the permit, the DEP reduced the permit period from 85 years to 50 and required that Wynn provide 2 more acres of open space on the project, as well as consider ferry service from downtown Boston to its Mystic River docks near the casino.
- Construction, which Wynn said it plans to start immediately, was held up after officials from the neighboring town of Somerville, MA, filed a series of legal challenges against the project, including one that requested the DEP deny Wynn the environmental permit.
Dive Insight:
In January, Wynn announced that it had awarded Boston-based Suffolk Construction a $1 billion contract to build the 3-million-square-foot casino. Wynn won the only casino license available when it beat out casino rival Suffolk Downs. At the time, it appeared as if Wynn's environmental approval was a foregone conclusion. With the announcement came the anticipation of at least 8,000 construction and permanent jobs by the end of 2018, which was the casino's original scheduled opening date, but Somerville's challenges stopped those plans in its tracks.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone maintains that the town isn't against the project, it just wants to minimize the casino's impact on "quality of life." Curtatone, who told the Herald that Somerville has already spent $400,000 in its attempts to stop construction of the casino, has seven days to dispute the permit's issuance and 30 days to initiate a lawsuit. Curtatone's problems with the project range from traffic congestion to whether Wynn should have been issued a gaming license.
The state is also getting another casino complex, courtesy of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which plans to build and operate the $500 million First Light Resort & Casino 40 miles outside of Boston in Taunton, MA. The tribe claims that it will generate $140 million in local economic activity and 1,000 union construction jobs.
