Mayor Martin J. Walsh wants a deal from Mohegan Sun for a Revere casino “identical in all material respects” to the lucrative agreement his predecessor signed with Suffolk Downs last year, before East Boston voters killed a Suffolk Downs casino project in a referendum.
That earlier deal, between track officials and former mayor Thomas M. Menino, included $33 million in upfront payments and at least $20 million a year specifically to address the effects of the casino on Boston streets and neighborhoods.
After losing the East Boston vote, Suffolk Downs struck a deal to lease 42 acres on the Revere side of its property to Mohegan Sun for a gambling resort, trying to eliminate Boston’s standing as a host community for the casino under the state gambling law.
“The fact that [Mohegan Sun] may have attempted to shift the casino so that it is located solely within the city of Revere in an effort to address the failure of the East Boston vote should not change the agreed upon commitments as articulated in the city’s existing [host agreement] for the Suffolk Downs property,” Walsh’s law department wrote Monday to the state gambling commission.
Mohegan Sun is competing with a Wynn Resorts project in Everett for the sole Greater Boston resort casino license, expected to be the most lucrative in the state. The gambling commission expects to choose a winner in May.
In the same letter to the commission on Monday, as well as in a second letter concerning Wynn, Walsh grudgingly informed the gambling panel that Boston would tentatively accept the designation of “surrounding community” to the pair of projects on the Boston border. But Walsh says he has not given up the possibility that Boston could qualify for the much more influential designation as “host community” for each project. He reserved the right to seek the more powerful designation after city experts review newly-released documents on the proposals.
“We believe this unrestricted route is the best path forward to protect the residents of East Boston and Charlestown, and the City of Boston as a whole,” Walsh said in a statement. “These applicants must have a more open dialogue with the people of Boston, particularly those neighborhoods that will be most impacted. At any time, if the facts indicate that Boston is a host city, we preserve its right to withdraw from surrounding community negotiations.”
The 2011 state casino law gives communities that host casinos broad power to bargain for payments in return for accepting a gambling business. Host communities can also block casino projects, either through their municipal officials or at the ballot box. Neighboring communities have far less power; they can negotiate for compensation under the law as a surrounding community, but cannot block projects. Failed negotiations are to be settled in arbitration.
Mohegan Sun did not respond Monday to a question about the compensation Walsh suggests he might want in a surrounding community or host community deal. The casino company instead issued a statement saying it looked forward to talks with the new mayor.
Walsh asked the commission last week to give the city another 30 days to research the two projects before deciding to accept the designation of surrounding community by Monday’s deadline.
The commission would not extend him the time, though its representatives suggested that Walsh negotiate compensation as a surrounding community with the understanding that Boston could later press any claims to be a host.
Wynn has proposed a casino resort on former industrial land on the Mystic River waterfront in Everett. The Boston city line crosses the river near Wynn’s planned construction site, and last fall Menino claimed the project could partly be in Boston. The issue came before the gambling commission at a public meeting in September. Maps from Wynn showed all of the company’s proposed development on the Everett side of the city line, and Boston soon agreed to begin talks as a surrounding community. Since then, though, Wynn has filed new material and more details on his plans.
Walsh, through his law department, complained to the commission that “the city has not, despite repeated attempts, been able to obtain relevant information” from Wynn on the company’s casino project.
The city asked the gambling commission to “compel” each developer “to cooperate fully with the city, providing any and all information requested by the city so that it may best evaluate its status as host or surrounding community.”
Mark Arsenault can be reached at mark.arsenault@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @bostonglobemark