The on-going sweepstakes from communities to land a casino in the state of Massachusetts has a new entry in the form of Westfield, Mass.
The western Massachusetts community is being looked at as a potential casino site by Penn National Gaming. According to Mayor Daniel Knapik, the casino company is currently in negotiations with Needham-based Equity Industrial Partners to purchase a 280-acre land near the Massachusetts turnpike. Equity Industrial Partners owns the said land.
Knapik has said that should Penn National Gaming succeed in striking a deal with Equity Industrial Partners on the land, the next step would be to engage in a city-wide referendum that will allow residents of the community an opportunity to voice their opinions on whether they’re for or against the building of a new casino in their community.
The building of a new casino in Westfield could be a financial boon for the community. In addition to Penn National investing anywhere between $500 million to $750 million on the project, the casino will almost certainly generate a ton of new employment opportunities for local citizens, not to mention reduce property taxes and attract retailers, hotels, movie theaters, and most importantly, attract a sizable number of casino goers to their locale.
The news about Penn National Gaming’s negotiations to build a casino in Westfield comes after Steve Wynn officially abandoned plans of building his own casino in the Foxborough area of Massachusetts in the wake of two anti-gaming proponents added to the local town council. Likewise, MGM Resorts International also shelved plans of building an all-inclusive, world-class, resort-style casino in Brimfield, Massachusetts last March, citing that building a casino in Brimfield poses far more negatives than positives.
