MGM gambles on Bridgeport with new casino plan

Conceptual rendering of MGM Bridgeport Resort Casino & Entertainment District. Conceptual rendering of MGM Bridgeport Resort Casino & Entertainment District. Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close MGM gambles on Bridgeport with new casino plan 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — The stakes have been raised in the competition to build Connecticut’s first new casino in 20 years, with MGM unveiling plans for a $675 million privately financed waterfront resort in the state’s largest city that the gaming giant is touting as an economic and jobs boon.

The developers of MGM Bridgeport are promising to create at least 2,000 permanent jobs and an annual tax revenue stream of $316 million for the cash-strapped state upon completion of the hotel, casino, shopping center, boardwalk and marina. An economic impact study commissioned by MGM anticipates the creation of another 5,779 ancillary jobs in construction and local business.

At a time when Connecticut is reeling from the loss of General Electric, Aetna and pharmaceutical giant Alexion just last week, MGM is dangling a multitude of incentives to state and city leaders to advance a pet project of its CEO, Bridgeport native Jim Murren. It is seeking to capitalize on Bridgeport’s proximity to New York City, coastal access and spot as a transportation hub.

The political ramifications of MGM’s overture are enormous, reaching from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to a legacy-minded Bridgeport politician with ambitions of succeeding him in next year’s election, Mayor Joe Ganim.

Not since Donald Trump competed for casino development rights here in the early 1990s have casino moguls placed such a huge bet on the city.

“The easy analysis here is Bridgeport has 7.3 percent unemployment,” said Uri Clinton, senior vice president and legal counsel for MGM Resorts International. “Bridgeport doesn’t have any private investors knocking on its door asking to be here. The state of Connecticut doesn’t. The state of Connecticut is in a budget battle. So in a state that is having these issues, a development project like this should be easy.”

A 2021 opening date is being eyed by MGM, but for that to happen the Legislature and governor must re-open the approval process for a new casino and likely go back on their deal with the Mohegan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation for a casino north of Hartford. The two federally recognized tribes, which operate Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, have exclusive casino development rights in the state.

The tribes dismissed the MGM plan as a pipe dream Monday and reasserted their exclusivity arrangement with the state.

“The idea that MGM is having a ‘groundbreaking’ for a project that hasn't come close to receiving legislative approval continues a pattern of dishonesty that we saw time and again during the legislative session,” said Andrew Doba, a spokesman for the tribe’s competing project. “Simply put, authorization of this facility would violate the existing compacts between the two tribes and the state which would immediately end the slot payments that currently sends the state hundreds of million a year in much need revenue. Our state's elected officials saw through their dishonesty last session, and we expect them to see this latest fib for exactly what it is - another bought and paid for piece of misinformation.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy avoided picking sides Monday in the casino rivalry, which pits his former chief strategist, Roy Occhiogrosso, the lobbyist for MGM, against Malloy’s former spokesman, Doba, who is representing the tribes.

“We will review the proposal when our office receives it,” Malloy’s spokesman Chris Collibee sad. “However, it is important to note that gaming is not currently authorized in Bridgeport under current law.”

MGM , represented by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, unsuccessfully sued the state over what it claims is an unfair monopoly. It has vowed further litigation after its most recent challenge was denied by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

More Information MGM Bridgeport casino and entertainment complex at a glance $675 million 7,000 jobs, direct and indirectly 300-room hotel 900-foot boardwalk 100,000-square-foot casino 2,000 slot machines 160 table games. 30,000-square feet of retail space

“We think that process was unconstitutional,” Clinton said. “We’ll put this project against any other project. This project wins.”

The formal announcement on the project, planned for a 28-acre spit of land across Steelpointe, home of Bass Pro Shops, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday with Murren attending. MGM signed a contract with the RCI Group, Steelpointe’s developer, to build the resort.

“This is a real win for everyone in Bridgeport,” said Robert W. Christoph Jr., a principal of RCI Group. “This will be a marquee waterfront development in the Northeast like no other.”

In addition to paying taxes on slot and floor games, MGM has committed to pay a $50 million licensing fee to the state if the project gets the greenlight. Bridgeport will get $8 million a year for hosting the casino to spend as it chooses, on top of whatever percentage of casino tax revenues it receives from the state, MGM officials said.

A source with knowledge of the plan said Ganim is supportive of the project, which will likely draw comparisons to unrealized casino dreams of a generation ago in the city of 146,000 residents.

In the early 1990s, Ganim teamed up with Trump during Ganim’s first stint as Bridgeport’s mayor to push a waterfront casino development in the city. But the project met competition from rival casino mogul Steve Wynn and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, as well as opposition from politicians such as then-Gov. Lowell Weicker Jr.

“I think it would have been a very good project,” Trump told Hearst Connecticut Media last year. “Now it’s a different time, but I think it would have been a good project. We can only try. We didn’t try very hard. We tried for a limited period of time.”

At the time, the state entered into a compact with the Mashantuckets and Mohegans giving them exclusive casino rights in return for them forking over 25 percent of annual slot machine revenues to the state. The state’s cut of casino taxes has fallen precipitously from $430 million in 2007 to $260 million because of the economic downturn and casino competition in New York and Massachusetts, however.

“You have an antiquated model,” Clinton said. “It does not allow for you to grow your tourism infrastructure or your gaming center of your industry.”

Renderings of MGM Bridgeport show a 10-story minimum, 300-room hotel rising up on the former Carpenter Technology property off Seaview Avenue, bordered by a 900-foot boardwalk, marina and 30,000-square feet of retail space. The casino would occupy 100,000 square feet of space with 2,000 slot machines and 160 table games.

While the resort would have a 700-seat theater, MGM officials say, the site isn’t large enough to build an arena or major performance venue. Casino executives added that Webster Bank Arena, which holds 10,000 spectators, would be a beneficiary of musical acts lined up by MGM.

“That arena is the obvious choice,” Clinton said. “We still need to bring the talent to town.”

To make the project more palatable to lawmakers from neighboring communities, who have opposed efforts to build a Bridgeport casino, MGM is promising $4.5 million in annual subsidies to nearby cities and towns impacted by the project. Part of the money, MGM said, will go to the city of New Haven, where it is planning to build a workforce development center for training.

“There is no request at all for any public subsidy,” Clinton said.

MGM’s attempted conquest of Bridgeport is only likely to intensify the hostilities between the publicly-traded gambling conglomerate and the tribes, which received final approval in June to develop a joint venture satellite casino off Interstate 91 in East Windsor.

The tribes are trying to stanch the bleeding of gambling revenues from a rival MGM casino opening across the border in Springfield, Mass., in 2018.

The economic hit of the MGM Springfield project to the state’s casino industry and ancillary businesses is projected to be $702 million and up to $100 million in annual tax receipts, according to the tribes, which say that 9,300 direct and indirect gaming jobs would be affected.

Between its Springfield venture and Wynn casino scheduled to open in Boston in 2019, MGM officials say Connecticut will see its gaming revenues shrink. If New York state approves table games as expected, MGM officials say, it will further cannibalize those revenues. It has characterized the tribe’s satellite casino as a “glorified slots parlor.”

“So you don’t have the hotel towers,” Clinton said. “You don’t have the restaurants. You don’t have the shopping. You don’t have the spa.”

Bridgeport’s legislative delegation has been split over the future of gambling in Connecticut. In the House, Reps. Christopher Rosario and Ezequiel Santiago were co-sponsors of a bill to create an open competition for a third casino, while Sens. Marilyn Moore and Ed Gomes voted for the joint tribal casino venture.

Casino executives say they are still doing their “due diligence” on the project’s potential impact to the local infrastructure. They did not have a detailed breakdown of full-time versus part-time jobs, but said that they have union support for the project.

MGM executives pointed to last December’s opening of MGM National Harbor in Prince George’s County Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., as a benchmark for the Bridgeport project. Bridgeport, along with a project in Tokyo, are the top two priorities of the company’s CEO, Murren, they said.

“I don’t know when those two cities are in the same sentence,” Clinton said.

http://twitter.com/gettinviggy ; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436