{"id":24397,"date":"2019-06-28T08:06:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T16:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=24397"},"modified":"2020-09-30T05:29:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T13:29:11","slug":"at-long-last-encore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/at-long-last-encore\/","title":{"rendered":"At long last, Encore"},"content":{"rendered":"

After much regulatory spilkes<\/em>\u00a0and political infighting, Encore Boston Harbor<\/strong> has come to market and early auguries are good. JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> got one of the first looks at the property and was “impressed.\u00a0In short, \"\"we think it takes a little bit from its prior developments in Las Vegas<\/strong> and Macau<\/strong> and combines the best of these characteristics into what would be not only the best regional, non-Las Vegas casino in the U.S., but a top resort in Las Vegas as well.” He said that if he didn’t know he was in Boston<\/strong>, he would have thought he was in Macao or Vegas. Wynn Resorts<\/strong>, he opined, did a praiseworthy job of making the casino “feel intimate and neighborhoody and complemented it with a beautiful room product.” The gaming floor (split over two levels) deploys\u00a03,158 slots, 143 table games, and 88 poker tables. Mass-market games are on the first, high-limit play and poker on the second. Ceilings appear higher than the norm and “the color schemes are light and natural.”<\/p>\n

Roger Thomas<\/strong>,\u00a0Wynn’s design impresario said of the look,\u00a0\u201cOur guests find themselves in an environment that makes them feel their best selves. Hopefully, we help you feel funnier, more romantic, even more considerate. When you leave, you realize you\u2019ve had a completely different experience that if you want again, you\u2019ll simply have to return.\u201d As for the Jeff Koons<\/strong> sculpture of Popeye<\/strong> that was shipped from Las Vegas to highlight Encore,\u00a0\u201cThe person looking at them is actually reflected in the art. I think the person looking at the art becomes a piece of the art while they\u2019re involved at the art,\u201d he told Global Gaming Business<\/em>. \u201cI think that\u2019s a wonderful, very contemporary late 20th century notion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Murano glass chandeliers crowning the casino floor, Encore features an aerial sculpture of 11,000 jewels and 83,000 flowers. As Thomas \"\"says,\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re nothing that anyone\u2019s seen at a hotel.” Or as Everett<\/strong> Mayor Carlo DeMario<\/strong> puts it memorably,\u00a0\u201cEverett will no longer be that place where the scrap yards and the used car lots and the power plant are.\u201d There’s still some question about Encore’s ability to lure whales, whom MGM Springfield<\/strong> has found in short supply. MGM is resorting to luxury limousine rides from Logan International Airport<\/strong>, comped rooms in high-end hotels, sports tickets and even free Boston Symphony Orchestra<\/strong> tickets to lure the rare creatures.<\/p>\n

Most of the 15 restaurants are carryovers from Wynncore<\/strong>, including Sinatra<\/strong> and Rare<\/strong>, a renamed version of SW<\/strong>, so as not to invoke He Who Must Not Be Named<\/strong>. “The spa product is another top version of Wynn and Encore Las Vegas, and the outdoor grounds are beautifully appointed to allow easy ingress and egress to the interior of various parts of the resort,” Greff opined. He questioned whether 671 hotel rooms would be enough, allowing that this was a nice problem to have, and said he’d look forward to seeing how traffic issues manifest themselves (or fail to) over time, adding that it took him 14 minutes to get from a Back Bay hotel to Encore. As for Wynn’s upcoming (July 10) investor day, he wrote with exquisite understatement, “We don\u2019t think there will be much of a discussion on asset divestitures.”<\/p>\n

Using the mantra “Arrive relaxed,” Wynn is marketing public transportation<\/a> \"\"heavily, as well as investing $4 million in a squadron\u00a0of “motor yachts,” upon which 35 passengers apiece can loll in white-plush splendor while listening to the strains of Frank Sinatra<\/strong>. Having also spent $70 million on road upgrades, Wynn has been an upstanding corporate citizen, one that is supplementing the notorious T<\/a> with its own bus service (including $14 round trips to New Hampshire<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have funded more transportation mitigation than any other private development in the history of Massachusetts<\/strong>,\u201d remarked Metropolitan Area Planning Council<\/strong> Director of Transportation Planning Eric Bourassa<\/strong>. Added political science boffin Clyde Barrow<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just like any other business.\u00a0I suspect in a short order of time, people will not even think about it any more than they think about the Walmart<\/strong> down the street.\u201d Encore = Walmart? Ow! That stings.<\/p>\n

Accentuating the negative, the Boston Globe<\/em> fixated on the issue of problem gambling<\/a> (as though Encore was bringing something new to the Bay State).\u00a0\u201cWhen you introduce gambling into a community, you can mitigate problem \"\"gambling by implementing science-based prevention and treatment \u2014 Massachusetts is doing this, which is really good,\u201d said psychiatrist Timothy Fong<\/strong>. Encore prexy Robert DeSalvio<\/strong> responded,\u00a0\u201cWe do not want anyone who has any sort of problem with gambling to spend any money on that casino floor.\u00a0It is not in our best interest at all. We want to make sure that they a) stay out, and b) that they get the necessary help that they would need.\u201d As for the casino, Dect. Lt. Brian Conners<\/strong> of the state police says Encore should expect\u00a0\u201cTrying to add to an existing bet to enhance their winnings, or pinching a bet, where they\u2019re trying to take chips away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-range goal of both DeMaria and Wynn CEO Matt Maddox<\/strong> is for Encore to be the start of something bigger and more multifaceted<\/a>, not an island of prosperity in an industrial wasteland.\u00a0\u201cOur idea\u00a0is to continue to redevelop this area so that it\u2019s known as the <\/i>entertainment district in the Northeast,\u201d said Maddox. \u00a0Wynn doesn’t have any concrete plans as yet but says that the performance of the resort will tell the company what needs to be added.<\/p>\n

For the time being, Encore appears to be a smash success in a city notorious for prudery<\/a>. The casino opened right on a schedule and, yes, there was a rush \"\"for the crab legs at the buffet, just like Vegas. There was also the inevitable hyperbole.\u00a0\u201cBoston is entering into a new era right now, being recognized as a global city,\u201d said lead contractor John Fish<\/strong>. (Some of us thought Boston had reached global awareness a long time ago.) DeMaria gilded a lily or two, trilling\u00a0\u201cWhen you drive through Everett<\/strong>, you\u2019ll no longer smell gas and sulfur and oils, but you\u2019ll smell flowers.”<\/p>\n

Gov. Charlie Baker<\/strong> snubbed the opening, as did Attorney General Maura Healy<\/strong>. Even the father of Massachusetts casinos, ex-Gov. Deval Patrick<\/strong>, didn’t show. And it would have been bad form on the part of Boston Mayor Martin “McCheese” Walsh<\/strong> to have bigfooted the occasion. McCheese always blew hot and cold on Wynn anyway, alternated lusting for the tax money it would generate and jawboning for a referendum that would have killed the project stone dead.<\/p>\n

More than any civic flattery, the words that would be most musical to Wynn’s ears were those of player Charlie Freeman<\/strong>:\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t have to drive two hours to Foxwoods anymore.\u00a0I\u2019m going to come here as much as I can.\u201d For his part, \"\"columnist Mark Arsenault<\/strong> couldn’t help reminding<\/a> Foxborough that it has passed on the project (people who would patronize a Wynn Resorts casino don’t want to live next to one, it seems). As for the original condition of the site, “First impression was that it looked like a good place for the mob to bury a body. If that\u2019s not a low enough bar, it wasn\u2019t even true \u2014 the soil, in fact, was too contaminated for digging.”<\/p>\n

That was the past. Encore Boston Harbor is going to shorten a lot of memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After much regulatory spilkes\u00a0and political infighting, Encore Boston Harbor has come to market and early auguries are good. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff got one of the first looks at the property and was “impressed.\u00a0In short, we think it takes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[65,117,166,112,245,163,19,100,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24397"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28064,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397\/revisions\/28064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}