The Wynn Everett casino resort is now on hold indefinitely.

EVERTT, MA—Blaming an appeal filed by neighboring City of Somerville, Wynn Resorts has halted all hiring and construction activities on its $1.7-billion Wynn Everett casino resort here.

The Las Vegas-based gaming concern reports that it has cancelled its planned April construction groundbreaking for the project as well as seven job fairs scheduled for Somerville, Everett, Boston, Malden, Medford, Chelsea and Cambridge. Wynn has also immediately freezed hiring for all 4,000 union construction jobs and all operational positions at the resort the company had been beginning to fill.

The decision to abruptly halt all construction on the venture was caused by an Chapter 91 environmental appeal recently filed by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone. Prior to the decision to halt all work, Wynn Everett says that preparation and remediation of the 33-acre Wynn site along the Mystic River, which began in October 2015, was progressing on schedule.

It appeared that most of the roadblocks to the project moving forward had been cleared when in late January the City of Boston and Wynn Resorts reached a settlement on what had been a bitter legal and public relations battle between Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and casino mogul Steve Wynn.

“Wynn has never been more resolved or motivated to build our resort in Everett,” says Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Everett. “Unfortunately, the appeal by Somerville's mayor leaves us no choice but to shut down our permanent building construction down. We can't put a shovel in the ground to build until a final conclusion is reached.”

Wynn Everett asserts that Mayor Curtatone's appeal of Wynn's Chapter 91 license could cost the Commonwealth $660 million a year or $55 million a month. The $660-million annual figure includes direct annual expenditures from Wynn: $242 million in annual taxes and fees, $170 million in payroll and $248 million in goods and services to operate and maintain the $1.7 billion five-star resort.

Mayor Curtatone issued a statement to Globest.com explaining the reasons behind its appeal and his response to Wynn's decision to halt work on the Wynn Everett resort project.

“Here's the bottom line: we are exercising our legal rights to an appeal, as set forth in the process that Wynn knowingly entered into,” the mayor states. “It appears that Wynn did not plan for the entire process and all of its possibilities and it's also clear that they simply can't argue our right to appeal based on the law. So the public needs to pay close attention to what Wynn does in the coming weeks. They are going to get personal. They are going to get political. And we suspect they are going to get vicious, because they know the City of Somerville is in the right.”

One of the key issues the mayor would like to have addressed is the estimated 18,000 cars the project will attract each day that could snarl traffic on local roads.

Wynn Everett officials counter in a press statement that three Somerville projects that Mayor Curtatone supports that are within two miles from the Wynn Everett site will generate more than 85,994 total new vehicle trips per day—nearly 475% more cars than Wynn Everett will generate.

EVERTT, MA—Blaming an appeal filed by neighboring City of Somerville, Wynn Resorts has halted all hiring and construction activities on its $1.7-billion Wynn Everett casino resort here.

Mayor Curtatone issued a statement to Globest.com explaining the reasons behind its appeal and his response to Wynn's decision to halt work on the Wynn Everett resort project.

One of the key issues the mayor would like to have addressed is the estimated 18,000 cars the project will attract each day that could snarl traffic on local roads.

Instant Insights /

Appeal Forces Wynn to Halt April Casino Groundbreaking

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