HARTFORD — The city is exploring a possible bid for a casino planned for the capital region by the operators of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun to compete against a larger gaming venue in nearby Springfield.
Thomas E. Deller, Hartford's director of development, confirmed Friday that the city has a copy of the request for proposals — filed with the state last week by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes — and will take a close look at it in the next few days.
"This has the potential for being a positive for Hartford and a negative if it is somewhere else," Deller said.
That view was met with pushback from Luke Bronin, the Democratic nominee and front-runner to become the next mayor.
"I don't see a casino as the solution to Hartford's challenges, and I don't agree that it hurts Hartford if the casino goes somewhere else," Bronin said in a written statement late Friday. Whoever wins the mayoral race in November will not yet be in office by the time the bids are due.The city's review is in the earliest stages and might not result in a bid, Deller said.Deller said there are "three, four, five possible locations" but he declined to identify them. They are not all in the downtown area, he said."Our play is to be the cultural, arts, music, hotel, and restaurant center for the region — and to provide those services no matter where a casino goes," Bronin's statement said. "If there's going to be any discussion of a casino anywhere in Hartford, there needs to be a full, thorough, very public, very transparent discussion in which the residents' voices are heard."This wouldn't be the first time Hartford has considered a casino.In the 1990s, casino magnate Steve Wynn set his sights just north of downtown Hartford, in the area where the Yard Goats' Double-A baseball stadium is now under construction. But Wynn ultimately withdrew those plans in the face of opposition from the area's chamber of commerce, Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry, a broad coalition of religious leaders and others.This fall, with authorization from the state to start the process, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes are moving quickly to build a midsize casino in north central Connecticut to compete against a larger, $800 million development under construction by MGM in Springfield. Proposals are due Nov. 6, and the tribes said they expect to pick a location by Dec. 15.The MGM project is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018, and the tribes hope to beat that date by a year or more. Once the tribes — fierce competitors who have joined together to respond to Springfield — pick a site, the legislature still must give the final go-ahead.In their request for proposals, the tribes make it clear they are looking for visibility and proximity to large population areas, with highway access, balanced with what will be easiest and the least expensive to develop.The tribes have required that both the property owner and the city or town sign off on any proposal, but formal zoning and other local approvals are not yet necessary.Developers in two locations — the former Showcase Cinemas in East Hartford and the Enfield Square mall — have presented detailed proposals, but the plan in Enfield has run into opposition from local residents.East Windsor and Windsor Locks also have been mentioned as possible sites. Windsor has said it is not interested.The tribes envision a casino with 2,000 slot machines and 100 to 150 tables, with an estimated development cost of $200 million to $300 million. The goals is to keep casino-goers in Connecticut with a location that provides gambling without all the flash and attractions of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.| < Prev | Next > |
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