Charlestown Groups Hear Suffolk Downs Casino Plan

Charlestown residents on Wednesday heard plans for a new casino development at Suffolk Downs—one of three projects vying for a gaming license in the greater Boston area—as proponents look for local support during the next phase of their applications.

Suffolk Downs CEO Chip Tuttle, representatives from partner Caesars Entertainment and others attended the April 3 Charlestown Waterfront Coalition meeting to provide details of their plan.

Members from the Charlestown Neighborhood Council and Charlestown Preservation Society’s Design Review Committee were also in attendance.

Located on 161 acres of existing Suffolk Downs property located largely in East Boston and partly in Revere, the Suffolk Downs proposal includes renovation of the existing racetrack clubhouse and grandstand as well as the development of two hotels—one of them Caesars’—two gaming floors and structured parking. The project includes around 15 restaurants with interior and exterior access, a luxury spa and various retail outlets, Tuttle said.

The development is expected to be about two-thirds the scope of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun resort casinos in Connecticut.

The project also includes $40 million of private investment in local roadway improvements, particularly around Route 1, Route 16 and Route 1A, according to Tuttle.

Two others are competing for the Boston region’s sole gaming license. Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn has proposed a 19-story hotel and casino in nearby Everett, while Colorado developer David Nunes is partnering with Foxwoods Resort Casino for a project in Milford.

Coalition member Ivey St. John said she has reached out to all three developers and expects to hear presentations from the other two applicants in the coming months.

Traffic and other impacts

The Charlestown Waterfront Coalition is looking at the proposals from an environmental viewpoint rather than the closeness of the project to Charlestown and its perceived impacts on the neighborhood, St. John said.

“We need to know as much as we can about this [Suffolk Downs], and we need to know as much as we can about Wynn,” she said. “If we provide a letter of support [for Suffolk Downs] over Wynn it will be [seen as] ‘not in my neighborhood’—that’s the way the Gaming Commission will see it, so our concern is what is the best one for the environment. We feel that’s a message the Gaming Commission will listen to.”

But that doesn’t mean residents aren’t worried about how a nearby casino might impact the neighborhood.

CNC member George Morton cut to the chase at Thursday’s meeting, asking Tuttle: “What impact is this going to have on Charlestown’s traffic? Bottom line?”

The question drew quite a few laughs, but the Suffolk Downs CEO responded simply.

“I think you’d be hard pressed to find an impact on Charlestown,” Tuttle said. “We have two close communities in Boston and Revere. BTD is actually doing a public review of our transportation plan Wednesday night, April 10 at East Boston High School. But, as we’ve studied all the different intersections and looked at the impacts, I don’t know that there’s an intersection in Charlestown that’s even in our study.”

To which Morton joked: “Done deal!”

Tuttle said the Suffolk Downs team has been studying traffic impacts since 2008—well before legislation was passed to allow casino development in Massachusetts. The team looked at 19 intersections around the property, as far north as Copeland Circle in Revere, as far west as the Route 1/Route 16 interchange and as far south as Neptune Road in East Boston.

Traffic study information can be viewed online at suffolkdowns.com/transportation.

Green development

As for the environmental impact of the project, Tuttle said the team was striving to become the second casino development in the United States to achieve LEED Gold Certification for energy efficiency and hoped to “lay claim to being the greenest gaming development in the United States.”

The project features about 40 acres of green space that will be open to the public, including a meandering natural entrance off Route 1A that Tuttle called, “a stunning vision" for restoring some of the natural ecological features of the site.

In addition, the casino design includes numerous environmentally friendly features, all part of Caesars Entertainment’s “CodeGreen” initiative, launched about 10 years ago at sites throughout the country.

The Suffolk Downs project provides an opportunity to expand upon those efforts, explained Joe Guziewicz, vice president of design and construction for Caesars Entertainment.

“We want to make this the new standard, to set the bar for casino development around the country—not only for Caesars but for everybody else,” Guziewicz said.

The project includes the usual CodeGreen goals—to divert waste from landfills, limit water use and reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions. But it also includes some special features, such as installing a solar panel array that will allow The Resort at Suffolk Downs to produce more than 2.8 megawatts of power on-site.

The team is also developing a program to remove food scraps and manure from the waste stream, planning to install kinetic energy mats inside the casino and on roadways to take advantage of foot and vehicle traffic to make their own energy, installing a roof garden where they hope to grow vegetables for on-site restaurants and making use of natural light in the casino’s design.

The design also includes a system to recover 100 percent of roofwater/rainwater on the site, which will be circulated around the property for track maintenance, chill towers and other uses, Guziewicz said.