Flanagan: Foxwoods is 'not looking elsewhere' despite reports that company is negotiating with New Bedford

Wednesday

May 28, 2014 at 5:51 PMMay 28, 2014 at 6:52 PM

According to sources in Standard-Times report, casino company has expressed interest in Whaling City Golf Course and says Fall River sites are unsuitable

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

FALL RIVER — Reports that Foxwoods Resort Casino has dramatically shifted priority to build a destination resort casino from Fall River to New Bedford are without merit, Mayor Will Flanagan said Wednesday night.

“They’re not looking elsewhere,” Flanagan told The Herald News minutes after he said Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera called him back in response to those reports.

“He has reassured me that Foxwoods has not abandoned the city of Fall River,” Flanagan said. “They’re committed to the city of Fall River and making this project work.”

But according to a story by The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Foxwoods and its investors, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, told unidentified sources that sites in Fall River, including a recently discussed waterfront location, were not suitable.

(Click here for the complete Standard-Times story.)

The story identified the Whaling City Golf Course as a site being negotiated for what Foxwoods has identified as a casino resort that would create 2,000 jobs.

Flanagan said that, for months, Butera has said “on numerous occasions that Fall River will be the place in Massachusetts where they will build this project.”

Three licensed casinos can be built in the state.

Flanagan said he’s been in negotiations with Foxwoods officials since November and that two to three weeks ago, they “were able to identify a waterfront location” in Fall River. He declined to be more specific.

The envisioned project Foxwoods and city officials have publicized would include a 140,000-square-foot gambling floor, about 10 restaurants, a hotel, shopping mall, entertainment arena, convention center and spa.

Flanagan and Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, both said they wanted to see what published information existed on the information about Foxwoods possibly preferring New Bedford.

When asked about the New Bedford source calling the Fall River site unsuitable, Flanagan said he did not believe the party had close knowledge of his negotiations with Foxwoods.

“I would deem this source, at this point, to be uncredible,” Flanagan said.

Fiola, who’s worked for three years with Flanagan attempting to lure various entities to build a casino in Fall River, said he was particularly interested in the source of the new information.

Fiola acknowledged “there’s a lot of moving parts” with decisions by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission issuing the licenses, possibilities of ballot votes and questions about reimbursing companies if a measure is repealed.

“All these issues lead to delay and uncertainty,” Fiola said.

“We have our obstacles with this project,” Flanagan said in a separate interview.