Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse to announce casino resort plan for Mountain Park with Eric Suher
Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse 
Eric Suher HOLYOKE — In a stunning reversal, Mayor Alex B. Morse will announce Monday he is mounting a bid to bring a casino gambling resort to Mount Tom in partnership with Holyoke native and entertainment mogul Eric Suher.
A key reason Morse won election as mayor last year was his opposition to a casino. Now, he said Friday, he was persuaded to change by the reality that a casino project of billion-dollar magnitude will be coming to the region and will affect Holyoke, thus making sense for Holyoke to have a say, and that with Suher involved the project offers a Holyoke businessman with a quality plan.
Morse and Suher are scheduled to discuss the plan at a press conference at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
Morse said he was prepared for the backlash against him to be fierce and to be hit with accusations he was flip-flopping, given his opposition to the city getting a casino. That includes Morse participating in a point/counterpoint set of commentaries on the CommonWealth Magazine website to which MassLive.com linked on Oct. 11 in which Morse wrote against a casino and Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno wrote in favor.
"My opposition to a box-style, convenience gambling casino is well known," Morse said. "But as the great economist and architect of the post-World War II economic expansion, John Maynard Keynes, once wrote, 'When the facts change, I change my mind.' " Nothing has changed!
"The reality is a casino is coming to the region. I hope to engage in quality discussions with every part of the city. I realize that some people will be disappointed but I urge them to stick with me," Morse said, in an interview in his City Hall office.
"I realized upon taking office in January that it's my duty and obligation to think holistically and use my values and judgment to do what's best for the city and the region," he said.
The selling points for Morse were that Suher's plan would incorporate into a casino gambling resort the outdoor activities the mountain offers like hiking and canoeing, along with a 350-room hotel and convention center, and a host-city agreement that would require improvements to downtown like extension of the Canalwalk, Morse said. Poppycock!
Suher, the Holyoke native who has become king of the local entertainment scene, said in a separate interview he is negotiating with Len and Mark Wolman, who are principals in the Waterford Group, of Waterford, Conn., to operate the casino at the resort he is proposing here. The Wolmans have been in partnerships on casinos such as the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. – which is proposing a casino resort in Palmer.
The casino resort would be on the 70-acre Mountain Park music venue that Suher owns and that used to be home to the Mountain Park Amusement Park, which closed in 1987. Suher owns the Iron Horse Music Hall, Pearl Street nightclub and the Calvin Theatre, all in Northampton.
The plan is for on and off ramps to be built off of Mountain Park Access Road to connect to Interstate 91, which runs beneath the access road, Suher said.
The gaming pursuit comes a year after Morse, then 22, won election as one of the youngest mayors in state history. Opposition to bringing a casino here was a key reason he won Ward 7, which usually boasts the city’s largest voter turnout, where Mountain Park is located and where many voters backed Morse because they don’t want a casino there.
"I truly believe I owe it to the city to let the voters decide on a project that would move the city forward and I couldn't let the fear of backlash get in the way of that," Morse said.
The law the state established a year ago requires that voters in a binding referendum signal their position before a casino license is approved.
So, said Morse, a card in Holyoke’s favor in the eyes of the state Gaming Commission could be that voters here already have said yes to casino gambling twice. Nonbinding casino questions were approved on Nov. 5, 2002 and April 25, 1995.
"The reality is the region is going to get a casino," said Suher, who said of the likelihood the plan will prompt outrage among many people in Ward 7, "I say to those folks, keep an open mind. Put their trust in the mayor and me. I assure them that they will have a seat at the table."
The casino gambling law that took effect a year ago permits three casinos in the state, including one in Western Massachusetts. A Gaming Commission will review proposals and award casino licenses.
The target date to issue the first license is February 2014 and after construction, it could be more than two years after that before a casino opens, according to the commission's strategic plan.
Holyoke’s competition for the one Western Massachusetts casino license comes from giants of the industry. Three are vying in Springfield: with MGM Resorts International planning an $800 million South End casino; Penn National Gaming planning an $807 million casino in the North End of the downtown district, including properties owned by The Republican; and Ameristar Casinos planning a $910 million casino at the former Westinghouse site in East Springfield.
That’s in addition to Mohegan Sun, the Uncasville, Conn. casino that has had a presence in Palmer for nearly four years in proposing a $600 million casino across from the Massachusetts Turnpike exit 8 on Thorndike Street (Route 32).
"We're in it to win it," Suher said. "I feel we have the best plan for the region. The citizens of Holyoke will actually have the opportunity to do something other than shop at the Holyoke Mall."
State Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, wrote in an email that a casino resort presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance at an unprecedented volume of new [LOW WAGE] jobs and economic activity [Where has that happened? It hasn't!].
“A site along Holyoke’s Interstate 91 corridor provides tremendous opportunities for the development of a true destination resort, and I am pleased city leadership is exploring those possibilities,” Knapik wrote.
With fees provided by whichever operator manages the resort's casino, the city will hire as development consultant David B. Panagore, who was deputy director of the Springfield Finance Control Board and most recently chief operating officer in Hartford, Morse said.
Suher last year bought the 9-hole Holyoke Country Club, which is near Mountain Park, and which he said he will keep as a golf course.
The privately owned Wyckoff Country Club, to the south, isn't part of the casino resort plan Morse and Suher are pitching, they said, but Wyckoff has been part of the casino discussion. Hard Rock
International of Florida had joined Paper City Development, a limited liability company, in planning a $500 million casino resort at Wyckoff beside Interstate 91
Former Mayor Elaine A. Pluta, whom Morse defeated in Nov. 8, 2011 election, supported the Paper City Development plan. But Morse rebuffed Hard Rock and Paper City Development officials in a meeting early in his administration with a mood participants described as cold.
Visitors to such a casino resort would have recreational access to the nearby Mount Tom State Reservation and Whiting Street Reservoir, said Morse, though he said Holyoke Water Works controls reservoir property and would have to approve any formal inclusion in such a plan.
On April 25, 1995, voters approved a nonbinding referendum on casino gambling 63 percent to 37 percent, or 5,656-3,351.
Voters approved a similar question Nov. 5, 2002 by a margin of 53 percent to 38 percent, or 5,957-4,203.
Critics have questioned whether such votes were too general to show accurate city sentiment on a casino. Under the new casino law, the binding question a city or town will face will identify the casino developer and the address where such a resort would be built.
A key, said Morse, is the plan with ramps to be built connecting I-91 to the Mountain Park Access Road means the project wouldn't disrupt local traffic.
"Through this plan, Mount Tom – which has been a regional and national destination of recreation and entertainment for over a century – may be reinvigorated," Morse said.
"I think the mayor said it best in that this has been a difficult thought process for us, both for the mayor to change his mind on casino gambling and for me to get to this point," Suher said.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/holyoke_mayor_alex_morse_to_an.html
From: Susan Van Pelt Ha! Only one out of the four listed accomplishments stands up to any scrutiny:
1) He launched a needle exchange? No, Tapestry runs the NEP with the authorization of the Board of Health & state DPH.
2) He "struck down plans for a casino"? He opposed any proposals until deciding to back the one who got to him behind closed doors.
3) Support for the computing center? Those plans were started under Sullivan & Pluta; wasn't much left for him to do but cut a ribbon or something. Of course, that timeline also lets him off the hook for not getting a better deal for Holyoke out of it.
4) Hiring a creative economy director? Yeah, he's done that. I *hope* the position will prove a wise investment, but honestly, it doesn't feel like a particularly amazing achievement, really.
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