Quincy Developer Proposes Horse Track, Casino In Wareham
WAREHAM (CBS/AP) — A Quincy developer wants to build a horse track, casino, hotel and entertainment complex in Wareham.
Notos Group LLC, a partnership led by Tom O'Connell, an executive at Marina Bay and the Granite Links golf club, unveiled the concept at a news conference Tuesday.
"We are today proposing Wareham and southeastern Massachusetts as the site of a multi-faceted, state of the art, entertainment complex that will bring world class thoroughbred racing to Massachusetts," O'Connell said Tuesday.
The complex, called Wareham Park, would be on a site just north of Route 25. The plan includes development of a one-mile horse track which the developer says will rival Saratoga or Churchill Downs.
"No insult to my father who is in the audience, but it's not your father's racetrack," O'Connell said. "We are really trying to bring a new thoroughbred racetrack kind of for the future."
Wareham Park would need legislative approval.
The Massachusetts casino law allows for a third resort casino in southeastern Massachusetts. The other two in the state are in Springfield and Everett.
The site they have selected is off of Glen Charlie Road in Wareham, which is zoned residential. The town planner says it might work.
"The question is what are those impacts from the development that will take place, is it the noise, is it the traffic?" asked Wareham Town Planner Kenneth Buckland.
New England's last thoroughbred horse track, Suffolk Downs in East Boston, hosted its final live races in June. Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which operated the track, ran a handful of summertime races since losing out on its bid to build a resort casino there in 2014.
In southeastern Massachusetts, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has so far been unable to build a casino in Taunton and the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe needs to secure local approvals before building a casino on Martha's Vineyard.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
