From Dave "Snake Eyes" Brigham:
(Left to right: MWRA wind turbine, Encore Boston Harbor casino, Mystic Generating Station. The Mystic River is in the foreground.)
Only a sucker would've bet against Wynn Resorts developing a new entertainment ecosystem around the Encore Boston Harbor casino the company opened in June 2019, along Broadway in Everett, Mass. Wynn, the Nevada-based gambling-and-hotel outfit run by Las Vegas legend Steve Wynn, made no secret of its ambition to site hotels, restaurants, retail spaces, office buildings and entertainment destinations around its gambling house hard by the Mystic River.
Prior to opening, the casino operator acquired numerous properties along and near Broadway, most of which are currently occupied by parking lots. In its latest deal, Wynn agreed to purchase a partially decommissioned power plant across the main drag from the hotel/casino. Constellation Energy agreed in March to sell the Mystic Generating Station to Wynn for $25 million. The portion of the plant that is still operating will be powered down by June 1, 2024.
"Wynn plans to build a standalone sportsbook, poker room, and nightclub," per the above-linked Casino.org article. "The casino is also mulling a new hotel tower on the property," which spans 45 acres. There is speculation that the Kraft family, which owns the New England Patriots, might seek to build a soccer stadium on this site for its Revolution team.
I've written twice about the area around the casino, first in the summer of 2013, before Wynn Resorts was awarded the license to operate the casino (see June 25, 2013, "Roll the Dice"), and then nearly six years later, when Encore was on the cusp of opening (see May 4, 2019, "Roll the Dice: Encore!").
Currently on the power-station site are numerous buildings, giant smokestacks, transformers, oil tanks and God knows what else. I imagine Wynn Resorts will need to ante up a pretty penny to demolish most (if not all) of the buildings and conduct an environmental clean-up.
In advance of acquiring the power plant, Encore Boston Harbor partnered with Goldman Global Arts to develop two murals as part of an effort to beautify the stretch of Broadway in front of the massive power station. Encore and GGA commissioned two artists, Tavar Zawacki and Okuda San Miguel, for the work.
(Zawacki's work is in the right half of the above photo.)
(San Miguel's work, which he calls Animal Magical, is seen in the three photos above.)
The most interesting building (to me, anyways) along Alford Street (which, once it crosses from Boston's Charlestown neighborhood into Everett, becomes Broadway), is most likely the oldest. I'm unclear whether the Mystic Sewerage building is part of the power plant, and whether it is part of the acquisition that Wynn made.
The sewerage building dates to 1895, per MACRIS, and "was one of three initially built to serve the new North Metropolitan Sewerage Systems (the other stations were located at Deer Island and East Boston)." I'm not sure how this building is used now.
As for the Mystic Generating Station, I believe it dates to the 1940s. It was originally known as the Boston Edison Mystic Power Station. "The brick and reinforced concrete Boston Edison complex was designed to provide power for towns on the northern side of Boston," according to the Society of Architectural Historians. "The power was produced by self-contained units, which included one boiler and one turbo generator. This process allowed for generators to be shut down or turned on depending on the demand for electricity. The building was continually expanded, and additional boiler/generator units were added (in 1945, 1947, 1957, 1959, and 1961). In 1975, Mystic 7 was put into service replacing the units built in the 1940s."
The coming makeover of this site -- which prior to the power plant was home to New England Gas & Coke Co. -- would allow for clear views into Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, and beyond toward downtown, and continue the transformation of the southwestern corner of Everett from industrial wasteland to gambling and entertainment mecca.
No comments:
Post a Comment