"Everett may buy site, sell it to Wynn for casino use; Plan comes as gambling panel worries about felon’s ties to land" by Andrea Estes and Sean P. Murphy | Globe staff April 16, 2014
Mayor Carlo DeMaria of Everett wants the city to acquire the property where Steve Wynn has proposed building a $1.6 billion casino, and then resell it to the Las Vegas mogul, using the city’s power of eminent domain to remove a roadblock that has threatened to kill Wynn’s chances of getting a casino license.
Except it is supposed to be used for public interests, not private bu$ine$$!
Under DeMaria’s plan, Everett would buy the casino site and seven other nearby properties for approximately $41 million and then resell them at the same price to Wynn Resorts. City officials said that their urban renewal proposal for the long-depressed area along the Mystic River was under development before Wynn proposed a casino and is not solely for his benefit.
“This area, as you are well aware, is critical to the future success of the entire city and will serve as a gateway to the entire region,” DeMaria said in a letter to Everett city councilors dated April 10. “My administration is committed to realizing the extraordinary potential of this area and the city as a whole.”
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The question of whether Everett’s urban renewal plan benefits the city or mainly Wynn could loom large, because, under state law, government taking of private land has to serve a public purpose — in this case, redeveloping a blighted section of the city — and not just for the benefit of a private party.
Everett voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on the casino proposal last year, largely on the promise that a casino could bring in thousands of jobs.
However, this is the first time that Everett voters are being asked to put up tax dollars to support the casino. Although DeMaria’s plan calls for Wynn to reimburse the city for the land, the broader urban renewal effort also calls for more than $30 million in other improvements in the areas, some of them paid for with city funds or bonds. Marchese is skeptical residents would support it if they think the deal is primarily for Wynn’s benefit.
It's what is known as house odds.
The land-taking would be a substantial boost to Wynn Resorts, acquiring not only the casino site, but several nearby properties that Wynn also had planned to purchase. Once Everett controls the property, the law does not require the newly created Everett Redevelopment Authority to go through public bidding procedures, allowing it to resell directly to Wynn....
I'll bet it happens.
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I've kind of folded regarding the issue, sorry.
"Everett landowner resists disclosure pledge; Gambling panel wants assurances criminals won’t profit from selling property to Wynn" by Andrea Estes and Sean P. Murphy | Globe staff April 11, 2014
One of the owners of land in Everett where Steve Wynn wants to build a casino is refusing to sign a promise that no secret owners would profit from the sale, raising questions about whether a convicted felon is still involved and potentially imperiling the entire $1.3 billion project.
Anthony Gattineri, co-owner of the former industrial land where Wynn proposed to build the Boston-area’s only casino, has declined to sign the pledge, even though Massachusetts Gaming Commission officials say they will not approve an Everett casino without assurances that criminals won’t profit from it.
“He’s not signing under the advice of his criminal counsel,” said Daniel W. Doherty, who represents Gattineri in business matters. The criminal attorney declined to comment further. Gattineri has also declined to testify under oath to Gaming Commission investigators.
Gattineri and his partners in FBT Everett Realty have already come under heavy criticism for misleading commission investigators about the role of Charles A. Lightbody, who has a four-page Massachusetts rap sheet, in the Everett land deal. One partner in FBT, Dustin DeNunzio, has admitted backdating documents to make it appear that Lightbody left the partnership before Wynn offered to buy the land in late 2012.
The ownership of the casino site is under state and federal investigation.
Isn't there also a lawsuit?
Gattineri’s refusal to sign the pledge is fueling suspicion among the project’s critics that Lightbody could still be secretly involved in the deal, at least indirectly, despite efforts to squeeze him out. DeNunzio and another Lightbody business partner signed a deal last year to buy a notorious strip club near the proposed casino, King Arthur’s Lounge, possibly giving Lightbody a way to profit from a casino in the neighborhood.
Lightbody boasted that he had the club “locked up tight as a drum” in a taped conversation with a prison inmate in June 2013, according to a transcript provided by the Gaming Commission. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed records from King Arthur’s owners related to the proposed sale, according to three lawyers familiar with the probe.
Lightbody has other close financial ties to the proposed casino site: Gattineri has told commission investigators that he owes Lightbody about $1 million, leading investigators to tell gaming commissioners that Lightbody could become part owner of the land again if Gattineri does not pay off the debt.
Lightbody’s lawyer, Timothy Flaherty, said he does not know why Gattineri is refusing to sign the statement. “It has nothing to do with any hidden interest that anybody believes Mr. Lightbody has because he doesn’t have one,” Flaherty said.
Attorneys for Wynn Resorts stress that they have nothing to do with the inner workings of FBT Everett Realty and that they have taken steps to eliminate secret partners, slashing the proposed purchase price for the land from $75 million to $35 million to reduce the windfall that could be funneled to criminals.
In an e-mailed statement, Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said the company does not see Gattineri’s refusal to sign the statement as an obstacle to Wynn’s winning a license.
Related(?): Doing Delahunt
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One gambling expert said the controversy threatens the credibility of the Gaming Commission’s effort to choose between competing casino proposals in Everett and Revere....
How can you threaten something they don't have?
Meanwhile, some critics are watching developments at King Arthur’s Lounge warily. The strip club, the site of an infamous 1982 police homicide, is less than a mile from the casino site, located over the Chelsea line....
Did you know the casino came with a strip club just over the town line?
