SPRINGFIELD, Mass. MGM is breaking ground on an $800 million casino in western Massachusetts that represents the largest economic development project the region has seen in generations.
Company officials including CEO Jim Murren, President Bill Hornbuckle and MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis are slated to attend Tuesday morning’s event along with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and state Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby.
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The groundbreaking is largely symbolic. MGM still needs state approval to demolish a historic school building to start the first phase of the project: building a 3,600-space parking garage.
But the event marks a significant development in New England’s ever-escalating casino race.
MGM is trying to become Massachusetts’ first resort casino. The company has said it expects to open the casino by 2017, after about 30 months of building.
When completed, the 14.5-acre casino complex will have 3,000 slot machines, 75 gambling tables, a 250-room hotel, shops, restaurants, meeting and office space, apartments, a bowling alley and a cinema.
Wynn Resorts also is eying a 2017 opening for its $1.7 billion casino for the Boston area but has not yet broken ground. A slots parlor is expected to open June 24 at the Plainridge racetrack in Plainville but that facility won’t offer table games or a hotel.
Leading Connecticut lawmakers, meanwhile, want to build a new casino to compete directly with MGM. A joint Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun facility would be built along Interstate 91 between Hartford and Springfield, which are about a half-hour drive apart.
Associated Press writer Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
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