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:
Marc Vasconcellos/The Enterprise |
Massachusetts governor Charles Baker, center, with Plymouth County sheriff Joseph McDonald, left, and Plymouth County district attorney Timothy Cruz, on Thursday, June 11, 2015 spoke briefly at the Plymouth County Human Trafficking Training Conference at the Shaw's Center in Brockton.
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