Many of us were surprised to hear this week that the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes might not come to the legislature until 2017 with a final plan for a casino site in the Hartford area. What happened to the big rush?
There's a reason why the pick is taking longer than General Electric spent combing the nation for a world headquarters site. It's not incompetence. It's not legal issues. It's the need to be patient with local politics, a hallmark in feudal Connecticut.
The tribes aren't saying anything publicly, but it appears that two locations they favor — in East Windsor and Hartford — are in municipalities with new leadership, at sites that are just now coming together. And this is a key week in the selection.
East Windsor's newly elected first selectman, Robert Maynard, finally submitted a proposal on Tuesday for the sites everyone has been talking about all along — a vacant former Showcase Cinemas building and an adjacent, vacant Wal-Mart location. Local politics slowed what seems like an obvious bid, a delay that appears to have frustrated the tribes.
Hartford's just-elected Mayor Luke Bronin has made no secret of his skepticism about a casino, but he maintains an open mind. This week, his development team was set to meet with representatives from the tribes to talk about a North Meadows plan that was entered in the waning days of Bronin's predecessor, former Mayor Pedro Segarra.This whole scheme to build a casino along the I-91 corridor is based on questionable motives and economics. A midsize development with maybe 2,500 slot machines, some table games and restaurants might not stanch the rush of gamblers to the $950 million MGM Springfield resort that's scheduled to open in 2018. And if it does, it might not last more than a few years as New England gambling reaches a saturation point.It certainly won't save 9,300 casino jobs, as a report last spring suggested. On the other hand, it will bring in private investment and will help state and municipal finances, so it's not a terrible idea.Neither Hartford nor East Windsor has a specific plan, in contrast to the other main bidders, Bradley International Airport and Anthony Ravosa, a developer pushing a vacant Showcase Cinemas in East Hartford.That doesn't matter, though. East Windsor's sites are already developed as buildings, with 1,700 parking spaces, instant access to I-91 and no homes nearby.It makes no sense to build something on open or partly developed land, as the previous East Windsor plan would have done, along Route 5 near I-91 exit 44. That plan, to be developed by Centerplan, the firm building Hartford's DoNo, was presented by former First Selectman Denise Menard before she left office.It also makes no sense to build a casino at Bradley. The entire point of an airport is to move travelers as seamlessly as possible with as few potential security issues as possible. If we needlessly bring people to an airport that has a single-road access, we're asking for trouble.In East Windsor, Maynard and Town Planner Laurie Whitten have not yet negotiated with the Showcase and Wal-Mart property owners, but those groups are apparently willing to talk — and why not? The sites could be joined together as one location for a casino, or the development could happen on either site, alone."Once we hash this out we'll have a great opportunity for them and for us," Whitten said of the tribes and the town.Approval by voters in a referendum was in doubt under the previous plan and the latest sites are more likely to win. "We just saw the writing on the wall that the community did not favor the Centerplan site," Whitten said, adding that she would welcome Centerplan as a developer. Robert Landino, the firm's president, declined to comment.Maynard and Whitten said they have the impression that the tribes favor the new sites, but, Maynard said, he hesitated to submit them out of respect for the Centerplan bid. He said the tribal partnership met with him on Dec. 15, saying it wanted to make a decision by the start of the legislative session on Feb. 3.A few weeks later, "the leaders of the tribal nations contacted me and said, 'We're not in such a rush,' " Maynard said.That could well be because they saw plans in East Windsor and Hartford developing slowly. On Monday, the chairmen of the two tribes suggested there may also be some legal issues connected with the state authorization — a lawsuit by MGM is pending and awaiting a decision — but there's no evidence that those concerns would hold up the site selection.Hartford, also right off I-91, is a wild card. "The same hesitation that I've expressed publicly I have expressed privately," Bronin said Thursday. "I don't see the casino as the jackpot … for our economic development challenges. And I think it's important that my development team remains focused on the daily ground game of recruiting and keeping businesses."But Bronin said, "I'm always willing to hear options. I don't think it would be responsible to do anything else … there would have to be an awful lot of community engagement."All of that takes time and it might not happen by the first week in May, when the legislative session ends."They've got one shot at the apple and they want to make sure it's done right," said Sen. Tim Larson, D-East Hartford, a proponent and co-chairman of the committee that will hear the bill.Even an approval in 2017 could lead to a casino that opens before MGM Springfield, but not by much. Having a plan before lawmakers by April, at the latest, is still the best way to go if we're going to do this at all.| < Prev | Next > |
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