Casino project presses on | Boston Herald

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Casino project presses on | Boston Herald

Major construction is moving ahead on Wynn Boston Harbor, Steve Wynn’s $2.4 billion Everett resort casino, despite allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

In statements yesterday, the casino mogul and his company, Wynn Resorts, denied the charges but did not address the status of the project as the company’s stock tumbled.

The project calls for a casino and a five-star resort with 671 hotel rooms; a spa; and retail, dining, ballroom and meeting space on 33 acres along the Mystic River — making it what the company has called the largest private single-phase construction project in state history.

Documents from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s Nov. 9 meeting include a quarterly report that says that as of Sept. 30, the project had already reached or was close to reaching several construction milestones toward its projected opening date of June 2019 — nearly five years after the commission awarded Wynn the sole resort-casino license for eastern Massachusetts after a competitive bidding process.

The garage structure and facade, including the podium and central utility plant, for example, had been built; utilities at the site were 96 percent complete; and landscaping, as well as fire protection, electrical work and masonry in the garage, were underway.

By next month, workers were expected to finish dredging more than 25,000 cubic yards of soil from the Mystic River to remove pollutants left by a series of chemical manufacturing plants over the years.

Wynn Resorts has said it expects to spend from $22 million to $31 million on pollution remediation, plus $15 million for the management and disposal of soil excavated in the course of the garage’s construction.

In all, the project is supposed to create more than 4,000 construction jobs and another 4,000 or more permanent jobs, as well as generate about $260 million in annual tax revenue for the state, the company has said.

As for future employees, Wynn Resorts said yesterday it “requires all employees to receive annual anti-harassment training and offers an independent hotline that any employee can use anonymously, without fear of retaliation.

“Since the inception of the company,” the statement adds, “not one complaint was made to that hotline regarding Mr. Wynn.”

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