Encore Boston Harbor Casino | 1 Broadway | Everett

Mayor DeMaria Finalizes Agreement with Wynn for New Hotels and Commuter Rail Stop​

“In the final hours of his administration, Mayor Carlo DeMaria signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Wynn Resorts that clears the way for the development of up to two new hotels on Wynn-owned property along Lower Broadway, bringing significant economic and transportation benefits to the City of Everett.

Under the agreement, the proposed hotel developments, which will not include any gaming, will generate new and ongoing revenue for the City of Everett through property taxes, hotel room occupancy taxes and meals taxes, consistent with rates applied to similar commercial developments in Everett. The proposed hotel developments are also expected to support job creation, including opportunities for union labor, and long-term economic growth along the Lower Broadway corridor…..”

Mayor DeMaria Finalizes Agreement with Wynn for New Hotels and Commuter Rail Stop

Mayor DeMaria Finalizes Agreement with Wynn for New Hotels and Commuter Rail Stop
www.bldup.com www.bldup.com
 
shmessy said:
At least there is this ray of light for growth and construction in the region. And that commuter rail stop (built with PRIVATE money from Encore) is important. What's happening on the Everett Waterfront is transformative. The potential for a dynamic future on both sides of the Mystic River is huge.
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They cannot build the CR stop by the casino, because the track grade is too steep coming off of the Mystic River Bridge. The platform grade would violate ADA requirements. The CR stop is going to need to be up by Sweetser Circle, for which Wynn is not going to want to pay.
 
JeffDowntown said:
They cannot build the CR stop by the casino, because the track grade is too steep coming off of the Mystic River Bridge. The platform grade would violate ADA requirements. The CR stop is going to need to be up by Sweetser Circle, for which Wynn is not going to want to pay.
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If I recall correctly, the first station would be going behind the Honda Dealership/MBTA Lot and the 2nd would be near Sweetser Circle
 
scorpio02150 said:
If I recall correctly, the first station would be going behind the Honda Dealership/MBTA Lot and the 2nd would be near Sweetser Circle
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There's no street access behind the MBTA shops unless you do an extremely roundabout walk that begins/ends practically either at the original Encore or Sweetser station sites, and it would require Everett Jct. to be completely relocated at $$$ because you can't have switches in the middle of a platform. It's an all-around ultra-crappy alternative if they're considering it at all, so I doubt they're considering it at all.
 
JeffDowntown said:
They cannot build the CR stop by the casino, because the track grade is too steep coming off of the Mystic River Bridge. The platform grade would violate ADA requirements. The CR stop is going to need to be up by Sweetser Circle, for which Wynn is not going to want to pay.
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So I've been wondering about this... I'm assuming it's not feasible, but could this be mitigate by moving the decline further north, meaning an elevated CR stop at approximately the Mystic crossing elevation and then start it's decline north of this conceptual station the ROW heads to Sweetser?
 
cburns said:
So I've been wondering about this... I'm assuming it's not feasible, but could this be mitigate by moving the decline further north, meaning an elevated CR stop at approximately the Mystic crossing elevation and then start it's decline north of this conceptual station the ROW heads to Sweetser?
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Certainly possible. but probably not financially practical.

Creating a viaduct structure along the Encore frontage is going to be a much more expensive construction project than a surface station. (Certainly outside the budget Encore has offered.)

Encore probably does not want the extra visibility and noise of a train structure blocking some of its Mystic River views? (Although the property tends to put its back side to the CR tracks, so maybe not an issue.)
 
cburns said:
So I've been wondering about this... I'm assuming it's not feasible, but could this be mitigate by moving the decline further north, meaning an elevated CR stop at approximately the Mystic crossing elevation and then start it's decline north of this conceptual station the ROW heads to Sweetser?
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It's doable but very very expensive. If you're distending the downgrade further north towards Sweetser you most likely have to relocate the crossover switches for Everett Jct. which need to be on level ground because of unbalanced-load freight cars going to the big scrap recycler at Everett Terminal (scrap cars are notorious for loads shifting in-transit). So that's a lot of Signal Dept. $$$. You have to scrape the ballast down to the soil pack and pour/pack more fill on that, which is going to be tricky EIS'ing because the tracks from the ex-Chemical Lane private grade crossing behind Encore were untouched back to when the big Monsato chemical plant was open on the Encore and Gateway Center sites abutting both sides of the track. The chemical contamination on the redeveloped properties was severe and required millions in cleanup and remediation before either property could be developed, and if you're even *touching* the same soil cap on the trackbed to graft on more fill additional remediation may be required there at mega $$$. Finally, you have to do all this earth-moving while retaining daily passenger and freight service, which is going to make it a very complicated staging process of one track at a time and lots of temporary signal/switch mods mid-staging. It's not going to be possible to do a "rip the band-aid" shutdown on a corridor as critical as Rockburyport and freight customers as large as the ones at Everett Terminal, and the staging may get even more complicated if there's the soil remediation concerns ^above^ also in-play.

I think the price tag ends up exceeding $100M, and there's no way that's going to pay off when the Encore stop is only going to have outsized ridership on event days at the stadium and Orange-to-bus out of Sullivan is still going to pair up as the superior overall frequency vs. the much less-frequent one-seat. It's definitely going to be a large enough price tag to thoroughly scare off the private investors. As I detail in this post, the Sweetser and "middle"/MBTA shops sites have their own cost bloaters that are going to render them more difficult, so there's not exactly any easy options for Everett Purple Line stops that are likely to get built before full :15 Urban Rail is implemented at all the existing stops. At which point Sweetser's and Sullivan's bus connections probably look a whole lot tastier for their considerable expense than the Encore site ever will. Encore is something you can mount with the Urban Ring where 4-6% LRT/BRT grades make flattening out the incline for a level platform a much easier proposition and the signal siting is way less of an issue because it's a mode without precisely placed freight-using switches.
 
the wild rover said:
@F-Line to Dudley Is the footbridge from Assembly going to preclude ever building LRT Urban Ring by blocking the old commuter rail bridge footprint?
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No. It might make it a little more expensive to do to the north rather than the south on the footprint to the old drawbridge approach, but there's still plenty of room.
 
BACsop said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Encore promised a world-class destination. Instead, it became a regional casino. - The Boston Globe

Beyond the marble floors and Venetian Rubino glass chandeliers, there is a tension between the ambition of what Encore set out to be, and the image of what it has become.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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Perhaps the local politics has something to do with it too. This area along with a new Orange Line stop or connect, housing, and soccer stadium would be quite the place to be.
 
Here's a few quotes from trip advisor that I think help explain this succinctly. (in case you're wondering the keyword I searched for was "pool") Every Vegas resort has pools, arcades, amusement areas, etc which make them friendly for the whole family. All we have here is a casino, overpriced restaurants, and a gaudy gold statue of Popeye.

"There isn't an on-site swimming pool in the fitness facility which also really surprises me. In fact, aside from the casino, there isn't any space to just sit and relax anywhere. "

"We decided to head outside for a walk by the water, we were surprised that was no outdoor pool or area for exterior dining/cocktails with a view. There is absolutely nothing outside except for some park benches with some seagulls looking to be fed."

"Outside of the Casino, there is literally NOTHING to do here."

"My only wish is that they had a pool. My last comment is that it an adult vacation as there is not much for kids. If you want to bring kids, then go to CT."

"It's not a resort if there is NO POOL/JACUZZI"

"There is absolutely Nothing to do for children, no pool at all, and they can not go to many of the restaurants because they enter through the casino which children can not enter."
 
Anyone without a financial stake in this could have seen it coming a long way off. It should have been placed in Foxboro, where Wynn was first looking.

Does the MGM in Springfield have family amenities for the non-gamblers?
 
I think a somewhat radical new vision for this development area is needed. I've been hearing dire things out of Las Vegas with restaurants, etc., closing. With a family of four or even three, flying there and staying in a hotel can be a prohibitive cost to bear. The Encore and area is relatively, easily accessible from Boston's 4.9 million metro population and that of Providence, Manchester, Nashua, and even Portland's. As it is now, Encore is primarily for gambling and eating and drinking at pricey restaurants. And drinking is loosing its popularity for several reasons and as we all know, alcohol consumption is a huge and easy profit model (and gambling lure with comp'd drinks). And with a projected recession on the way, or already partly here, please, please, don't let it become a de facto Atlantic City. The area is already bleak enough.
 
TC_zoid said:
I think a somewhat radical new vision for this development area is needed. I've been hearing dire things out of Las Vegas with restaurants, etc., closing. With a family of four or even three, flying there and staying in a hotel can be a prohibitive cost to bear. The Encore and area is relatively, easily accessible from Boston's 4.9 million metro population and that of Providence, Manchester, Nashua, and even Portland's. As it is now, Encore is primarily for gambling and eating and drinking at pricey restaurants. And drinking is loosing its popularity for several reasons and as we all know, alcohol consumption is a huge and easy profit model (and gambling lure with comp'd drinks). And with a projected recession on the way, or already partly here, please, please, don't let it become a de facto Atlantic City. The area is already bleak enough.
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That you can gamble closer to home, etc is probably a big part of the Vegas tourism decline.
 
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