March 05–MOHEGAN — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had no problem getting behind the Mohegan Tribe’s expansion plans Thursday, at least the on-site ones that call for a $120 million hotel at Mohegan Sun.
The governor, who attended a press conference at the casino, was far less committal when asked whether the state and its two casino-owning Indian tribes should protect themselves against out-of-state competition by introducing more gaming locations in Connecticut.
Legislation seeking such an end now appears all but certain.
Malloy said he met this week with representatives of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes during a visit to eastern Connecticut and was aware that the tribes have been lobbying at the state Capitol. He said they supplied him with a draft report on the topic Tuesday night.
“I haven’t had time to read it,” he said.
The governor acknowledged that mounting competitive pressures from out-of-state casinos have constrained revenues and caused significant job losses at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino.
“It really is a big-picture matter,” he said.
Still, the governor stressed that he is not leading the debate about what to do about it, and would have to study any proposals “before I stake out some territory.”
Kevin Brown, the Mohegan tribal chairman, also confirmed that both the Mohegans and the Mashantuckets have been meeting with legislators though he declined to name any. He noted that gaming legislation has historically originated in the General Assembly’s Public Safety and Security Committee, which conducted hearings last month on a bill calling for slot machines at some of the state’s off-track betting facilities.
The measure, drafted without input from the tribes, went nowhere. Under their exclusive gaming agreements with the state, the tribes have the exclusive right to operate legal gaming in the state, essentially giving them veto power over proposals they oppose.
Mohegan officials first suggested months ago that the tribes could open a slots parlor north of Hartford to keep state residents from “defecting” to MGM Springfield, the Massachusetts casino that MGM Resorts International is about to start building and expects to open by the end of 2017.
Casinos also have been licensed in Everett, Mass., outside Boston, and in upstate New York.
In one scenario that’s been mentioned, the tribes could install slot machines in an existing, unused structure along Interstate 91 in, say, Enfield or East Windsor, a plan some find attractive because it could be implemented quickly and at relatively little cost.
Brown said the highways crisscrossing the state provide “multiple possibilities.”
He said the possible pursuit of off-reservation gaming is not about expanded gambling but rather the preservation of state revenue and jobs.
The topic threatened to overshadow the Mohegans’ announcement of their plans for the new Earth Hotel.
“Long awaited” and “much anticipated,” the multi-story tower’s 400 rooms will enable Mohegan Sun to capture many of the “500,000 room nights we turn away every year,” Mitchell Etess, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority’s chief executive officer, said. Modeled after the casino’s existing 1,200-room hotel tower, now dubbed Sky Hotel, the new hotel has been designed by the same architects that designed the original, Kohn Pedersen Fox. The A/Z Corp. of North Stonington has been hired as general contractor.
Mohegan Sun officials said the project will generate more than 1,000 construction and permanent jobs, pushing the casino’s workforce to more than 7,000 employees.
Noting that the Northeast gaming landscape is rapidly changing, Brown said the project “couldn’t come at a better time.” Construction could begin later this month, he said, with an opening scheduled for the fall of 2016.
Room rates at the Earth Hotel will, on average, be 25 percent less than those at the Sky Hotel.
Malloy called the Mohegans’ ability to move the project forward “remarkable.”
The tribe is financing the project through the sale of tribal economic development bonds.
Etess noted that Mohegan Sun first planned a second hotel as part of the casino’s 2007 Project Horizon expansion, which never fully materialized. Amid a recession, executives scaled the project way back.
A separate, nearly two-year-old Mohegan Sun plan to add 200,000 square feet of space devoted to shopping, entertainment and dining options has been put on hold, Etess revealed for the first time Thursday.
The $50 million Downtown District development was to include a 14-screen movie complex.
“At this point we are in a comprehensive process re-evaluating the site here and what are the best amenities for development,” Etess wrote in an email. “Consequently, although we do believe incremental retail would be attractive to our guests, there may be more optimal uses of that space, which could be more attractive and differentiate ourselves better. So we are currently re-evaluating the Downtown District.”
The Mashantuckets’ Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, an 80-store enclosed mall linking Foxwoods’ Grand Pequot and Fox towers, is scheduled to open May 21.
Twitter: @bjhallenbeck
