Wynn Resorts is determined to proceed with its demolition plan despite a number of legal and regulatory hurdles on its $1.7-billion project casino resort in Everett, Massachusetts.
Wynn purchased the Charlton Place Small Business Center in February, as it blocks a planned road to the main site of the casino property, and gave a total of 27 small companies until the end of June to move out.
A spokesman said that Wynn hasn’t collected any rent from Charlton Place tenants since buying the building and only four remaining tenants have yet to find new locations.
The casino operator is also negotiating with PlanetTran, a limousine company in the building and the only tenant with a formal lease, to buy out the lease and hopes to demolish the building by the end of the summer.
Chris Tkach, owner of the microbrewer Idle Hands Craft Ales LLC, among the businesses still looking for new homes, commented that Wynn should have given them more time to relocate.
Wynn Resorts said in a statement that it has been working closely with all tenants of the center and has negotiated matters such as “rent abatement, financial assistance of up to $10,000, and flexible relocation timelines.”
There were tenants that were glad to move, such as the owner of Marble and Polish Inc., one of the companies who got almost four months of free rent plus $10,00 from Wynn to help it relocate to another place. Wynn offered $10,000 to any of the companies at the center that moved before the end of June.
While Wynn appears to be on track to demolish the Charlton Place building, it has run into delays elsewhere as the land of the site where Steve Wynn plans to build his resort casino is still under investigation.
