Mashpee tribe unveils casino design
TAUNTON — Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe leaders and consultants unveiled new casino designs Tuesday night with curved tower hotels they say add a "wow factor" to the proposed $500 million project.
The casino still would feature two hotels of 300 rooms each, 3,000 slot machines, 150 table games and 40 poker tables, but the look of the buildings has changed dramatically in the year since the plans were first introduced to the Taunton City Council.
It's been designed obviously with a big wow factor," said Michael Speller, an executive with Genting Group, the Malaysian-based company that is lending the tribe money for the project.
A curved entryway has tunnels for cars to enter parking garages that will keep the flow of traffic off nearby streets, Speller said. Retail stores and restaurants remain part of the plans.
Consultants have worked to make the design "more vibrant" and "more exciting," Speller said. The project still would be done in five phases and includes a water park and additional hotel in the final phase, he said.
"I think it's exciting. The project is starting to take shape," Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. said after the presentation. "This is about job creation. We've all seen the unemployment numbers for Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford. These jobs are needed."
Speller said the project will create 1,000 construction jobs and as many as 2,650 permanent jobs with an annual payroll of $80 million.
A traffic consultant also provided a review of proposed roadwork improvements that included a computer animation showing the flow of traffic in and out of the casino, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.
Questions were raised by city councilors about a recent Massachusetts Gaming Commission decision to open Southeastern Massachusetts to competitive commercial bids, as well as the federal legal hurdles still facing the tribe.
Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the tribal council, said the project is moving forward, despite the commission's decision to open the region.
"In no way, shape or form does the Massachusetts Gaming Commission decision impede our process in taking land into trust, impede our process in starting construction"»," Cromwell said. "Nor does it impede anything we're doing with this project."
He predicted that federal approvals could come by the end of the year or the first quarter of 2014.
Casino opponents in the audience openly scoffed at Cromwell's mention that the tribe's application to have Taunton land taken into federal trust as reservation land is nearly 80 percent complete.
Penny Coleman, a former general counsel with the National Indian Gaming Counsel who now works on the tribe's gaming commission, said the tribe's application is moving at "lightning speed" with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. "I suspect the land in trust process will be completed in a matter of months, not years," she said.
More than a dozen tribe lawyers and consultants were on hand for the presentation, as well as tribal council members and tribe elders.
Casino opponents remain unconvinced that Taunton is the right place for the project.
"I have a problem with a casino in a residential neighborhood," resident Frank Lagace said after the meeting.
Though the tribe still faces significant hurdles and possible competition in Southeastern Massachusetts, Lagace and other opponents are keeping a watchful eye.
"The tribe's down on one knee," he said. "We're here just in case they get up."
Speller said once those approvals are in place, the tribe will break ground and have its first phase completed within 15 to 18 months.
Today, tribe leaders will be at the Statehouse where the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies will hold a hearing on the compact reached with Gov. Deval Patrick.
The renegotiated deal would pay the state a percentage of gross gambling revenues on a sliding scale from zero to 21 percent based on casino competition.
The deal needs the approval of the state Legislature before it can be forwarded to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which rejected the first deal reached between the tribe and Patrick.
Cromwell said he doesn't anticipate any issues with the new deal either with the Legislature or the BIA, which provided technical assistance on this compact.
Even if the state doesn't approve the compact, the tribe intends to move forward with a Class II casino in the city that won't provide any revenue to the state, Cromwell said.
Taunton would still receive its payments of $8 million per year, plus other annual mitigation payments approved in a separate deal between the city and the tribe, Cromwell said.
The tribe is also voluntarily filing today for an environmental review of the project under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, Cromwell said.
An environmental review is already underway under the federal act and is estimated to be 75 percent complete, he said.
In The Cards
05/14/2013
Mashpee Wampanoag release new casino rendering
New renderings of a planned tribal casino by the Mashpee Wampanoag show a sparkling curved hotel tower, as part of an updated design to the tribe’s gambling resort proposal for Taunton.
“There’s a lot of engineering, there’s a lot of traffic mitigation involved in that design, there’s a lot of environmental mitigation,” said Cedric Cromwell, the Mashpee Wampanoag chairman, in an interview. “When you look at that architectural rendering, it speaks to many different fronts.”
The new renderings come the week the state gambling commission is expected to discuss a schedule for accepting and reviewing bids from commercial casino companies in Southeastern Massachusetts, a move the tribe has bitterly opposed. The commission is scheduled to discuss the application process on Thursday.
The southeast has been off-limits to commercial casino developers since the state legalized Las Vegas-style gambling in 2011. Language in the casino law delayed commercial bidding in the region to give the Mashpee time to make progress on a tribal casino, which would be approved under a federal process separate from the state’s casino competition.
But the tribe faces legal challenges to getting the land for the proposed casino placed into trust by the federal government, a requirement for the property to host tribal gambling. Cromwell said the tribe is making great progress, but skeptics insist the Mashpee could be years away from getting eligible land.
Unable to be sure when, or if, the tribe will be successful, the state gambling commission in April voted to lift the freeze on commercial casino applications in the southeast. The panel is not expected to consider awarding a license for the region until well into 2014, and if the tribe shows progress over the next year, the commission is not obligated to issue the commerical license.
Tribe releases new renderings of proposed Taunton casino
By Gerry Tuoti
By Gerry Tuoti
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell, Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. and Attorney Penny Colemen, Chairwoman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Gaming Authority and former legal counsel for the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Department of the Interior, at Tuesday’s City Council meeting where the tribe released new architectural renderings of the proposed Taunton casino.
TAUNTON —
While opinions vary dramatically on the likelihood that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s proposed casino in Taunton will come to fruition, Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell insists the project is on track.
Mashpee Wampanoag officials attended a Taunton City Council meeting Tuesday to reveal new architectural renderings of the tribe’s proposed East Taunton casino and provide city councilors with an update on the project.
“It’s been designed with a big wow factor,” said Michael Speller, president of Genting New York, the tribe’s financial backer. “It’s an opportunity to build something we think will be great for the city and look fantastic when it’s finished.”
The renderings depict glass-enclosed, S-shaped pair of 15-story hotels towering over a complex of one- and two-story buildings, all interconnected. At the casino’s entrance, a bank of colored lights partially a surround a cul-de-sac. Across the entry road sits a 3,200-space parking structure, connected to the main complex by an elevated walkway.
Proposed amenities include a 200-seat entertainment lounge, a 400-seat buffet, two fine-dining restaurants and retail shops. A water park would be built in the fourth phase of construction.
The casino would support 2,560 permanent jobs and an $80 million annual payroll, Speller said.
City Councilor David Pottier questioned whether the new design represents a material change that would be grounds for revisiting the intergovernmental agreement the tribe and city signed last year.
“I don’t see it as a substantial change,” Speller said. “I don’t see it as a material change at all. I just see it as a rearranging of the components.”
The Mashpee, who were federally recognized in 2007, hope to build a $550 million tribal casino on land they have under option in Liberty and Union Industrial Park in East Taunton. They currently lack the federal land designation that’s necessary to build a tribal casino under U.S. law.
City resident Scott Rodrigues, one of the casino opponents in attendance, said after the two-hour presentation that he doesn’t believe the tribe qualifies for a federal land-in-trust approval.
“They can present what they want to present, but at the end, it’s about land in trust …” he said. “I still firmly believe it’s just a dog and pony show at this point.”
The Mashpee have land-in-trust application pending with the Department of the Interior, and Cromwell says he is confident of success. Many others, however, say a 2009 Supreme Court ruling strips the Department of the Interior of the authority to hold land in trust for tribes who were not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
Mashpee Wampanoag officials attended a Taunton City Council meeting Tuesday to reveal new architectural renderings of the tribe’s proposed East Taunton casino and provide city councilors with an update on the project.
“It’s been designed with a big wow factor,” said Michael Speller, president of Genting New York, the tribe’s financial backer. “It’s an opportunity to build something we think will be great for the city and look fantastic when it’s finished.”
The renderings depict glass-enclosed, S-shaped pair of 15-story hotels towering over a complex of one- and two-story buildings, all interconnected. At the casino’s entrance, a bank of colored lights partially a surround a cul-de-sac. Across the entry road sits a 3,200-space parking structure, connected to the main complex by an elevated walkway.
Proposed amenities include a 200-seat entertainment lounge, a 400-seat buffet, two fine-dining restaurants and retail shops. A water park would be built in the fourth phase of construction.
The casino would support 2,560 permanent jobs and an $80 million annual payroll, Speller said.
City Councilor David Pottier questioned whether the new design represents a material change that would be grounds for revisiting the intergovernmental agreement the tribe and city signed last year.
“I don’t see it as a substantial change,” Speller said. “I don’t see it as a material change at all. I just see it as a rearranging of the components.”
The Mashpee, who were federally recognized in 2007, hope to build a $550 million tribal casino on land they have under option in Liberty and Union Industrial Park in East Taunton. They currently lack the federal land designation that’s necessary to build a tribal casino under U.S. law.
City resident Scott Rodrigues, one of the casino opponents in attendance, said after the two-hour presentation that he doesn’t believe the tribe qualifies for a federal land-in-trust approval.
“They can present what they want to present, but at the end, it’s about land in trust …” he said. “I still firmly believe it’s just a dog and pony show at this point.”
The Mashpee have land-in-trust application pending with the Department of the Interior, and Cromwell says he is confident of success. Many others, however, say a 2009 Supreme Court ruling strips the Department of the Interior of the authority to hold land in trust for tribes who were not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
“Based on those 29 years of experience … the tribe’s process is working at lightning speed, is being completed in record time, and I expect the land-into-trust process will be completed in matter of months, not years,” Coleman said.
Cromwell estimates the tribe’s land-in-trust process is 80 percent complete.
Taunton casino opponents have found historic documents suggesting the U.S. government did not consider the Mashpee to be under federal jurisdiction by 1934.
The tribe, Cromwell said, has reached many benchmarks, such as signing an agreement with the city and clearing a citywide referendum. No other casino developer in the state, he has said, has made as much progress as the Mashpee.
“We’re light years ahead of any other development in the commonwealth,” Cromwell said.
Pottier questioned the tribe’s projected timeline, saying that from what he’s seen, the land-in-trust application for other tribes typically takes much longer. Cromwell replied that the Mashpee are pouring considerable resources into the application.
Responding to another question from Pottier, a tribal attorney said the Mashpee’s purchase options on the parcels in and around Liberty and Union Industrial Park expire in 2014. If it doesn’t have land in trust at that point, the tribe would decide whether to purchase the land or renegotiate for an extension on the option.
The presentation included a series of traffic infrastructure improvements the tribe would fund. Traffic exiting the casino would be prevented from turning left on Stevens Street, minimizing the impact in residential neighborhoods, the tribe’s traffic consultant, David Matton, said.
City Councilor A.J. Marshall said traffic had been one of his major concerns.
“We’re signalizing intersections in East Taunton we’ve never been able to fund, all before the first quarter is put in a slot machine,” Marshall said.
The state legislature is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday on the casino compact between the tribe and the state.
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