Foxwoods Touts 'Revolutionary' Milford Design
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This rendering provided by Foxwoods shows the entrance to its proposed Milford casino.
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Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera said the company's Milford design focused on fitting in with its local surroundings. The square footage of the proposed buildings is about one-eight the size of Foxwoods in Connecticut.
Matt Pilon
Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera focused on his development team's Massachusetts ties and the financial benefits to Milford in a presentation Monday evening.
Nearly two months after a Milford selectman admonished Foxwoods' development team for not providing more concrete details about the gaming company's plans for a casino along Interstate 495 and Route 16, CEO Scott Butera gave an energetic overview Monday of a design he called "unlike any other that's out there in the gaming business."
Butera stressed that the facility laid out by his design team looks nothing like Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Conn. and has only 13 percent the area (1 million square feet).
He said the property would feature a number of low rise hotel buildings (renderings presented last night show seven-story structures) centered around a town green and would be the first "indoor-outdoor" gaming facilities in existence, featuring walking trails, outdoor performance spaces, an extensive roof garden and a sculpture park.
Hotel buildings with front porches would be centered around a town green on the 187–acre property, incorporating an entrance to the 115,000-square-foot casino that would be behind the hotel buildings.
The project would be built in two phases. The first would include 4,250 slot machines, 175 gaming tables, 350 rooms, 25,000 square feet of retail space and a 2,800-car parking garage. Phase two would add 1,200 slots, 65 tables, 350 more rooms, three restaurants, two lounges, 15,000 additional square feet of retail and parking for 1,400 more cars. The casino would also have a ballroom.
Foxwoods, which is applying for one of the state's three resort casino licenses under the name FCX Massachusetts LLC, would build a collector distributor road on both the northbound and southbound side of I-495 to mitigate potential backups on the highway. The collector road would channel motorists onto Route 16, where the entrance to the resort casino would be located.
An engineer for FCX Massachusetts said Monday night that the facility would generate 16,000 vehicles coming and going during the week, which would increase to 23,000 on Fridays and 28,000 on Saturdays. The company anticipates more than 90 percent of visitors to the casino to arrive by way of I-495.
Butera began his presentation by addressing common concerns about what impacts a casino could have in a community, from falling property values to increased crime.
"There's a rule in this business," Butera said. "Your property has to be clean, safe and fun. If you're not that, get out of the business."
He said that property values could actually rise in Milford because the casino will bring jobs and income to area residents.
That's not the only thing the casino would bring to town.
Butera said the facility would employ 3,500 people both full time and part time. Each permanent job would have an average salary of over $50,000 per year. The casino would also purchase more than $50 million worth of local goods and services each year.
The town of Milford would receive an annual payment in lieu of taxes between $15 million and $20 million, as well as a $2.5 million community impact fee to pay for additional police and fire services. The casino would also pay a yet-to-be negotiated "community enhancement fee" to cover capital enhancements in Milford.
"Tens of millions of dollars we think will help out," Butera said.
He praised Milford's financial management, adding: "I absolutely want money in this town's hands. I'd rather have it in your hands than anyone else's."
Selectmen have until August to negotiate a host agreement with Foxwoods, which is required to meet a December deadline for filing design plans with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
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