The Encore Boston Harbor casino. State House News Service photo | File
Everett’s new mayor is standing behind a deal his predecessor clinched just hours before leaving office, letting a pair of hotels and new transit infrastructure move forward.
Former mayor Carlo DeMaria announced a “memorandum of agreement” between the city and Encore Boston Harbor owner Wynn Resorts Monday afternoon that would see the casino operator put $25 million towards studies for and construction of a commuter rail station next to Encore.
The deal also includes a framework for taxing a pair of new hotels totaling 800 rooms and a 72,000-square-foot entertainment venue that Wynn has long sought to develop across the street from its casino. The projects had been suspended in 2024 over disagreements with the city over taxes, impact fees and whether gaming spaces would be included in the development.
Wynn Resorts did not return a request for comment.
“While I did not negotiate this agreement, it is important to be clear: This project will move forward under my administration,” Mayor Robert Van Campen said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, according to video of the event posted on the city of Everett’s Facebook page. “I want Everett to be a destination, not a drive-through. somewhere where people want to live, work and play.”
The deal stipulates that the hotels would become the project’s first phase, and no part of the expansion will include gaming facilities, he said.
The deal also includes a $15 million commitment from Wynn to help pay for dedicated bus lanes in the Lower Broadway corridor, Van Campen added, and a commitment to negotiate a project labor agreement for the hotels, club and all future Wynn developments in the city.
Wynn committed $15M to expanded and dedicated bus lanes and another $25M to a dedicated commuter rail stop
The projects have undergone some state environmental review, but the hotels still need to be reviewed by the city Planning Board. And Van Campen indicated he has concerns over the proposal.
“As someone who inherited this deal I am also inheriting its challenges. I am concerned about traffic and congestion in an area that’s already heavily traveled, and I have real questions about the feasibility and location of the commuter rail stop,” he said.
Wynn isn’t the only stakeholder with an interest in where the station ultimately lands.
A station next to Encore could present pedestrians at the Kraft Group’s proposed soccer stadium on the Everett waterfront, a multi-million-square-foot Davis Companies mixed-use project nearby and the new Wynn hotels with a long, indirect route to access the train. The MBTA’s Everett bus garage and a service road for Encore casino vehicles stands between the commuter rail tracks and the rest of the Lower Broadway area.
“The concern I have is that doesn’t fully activate the other side of Broadway, the other side of Route 99,” Van Campen said. “I would much prefer to see a commuter rail stop on the other side, which would give the city, investors, the opportunity to really activate opportunities on that side of the roadway that I don’t think would exist without that commuter rail stop being situated there.”
And April 2025 conceptual study that outlined how the MBTA might serve that soccer stadium said the T doesn’t currently have the funding for a station. A comparable project, the agency’s planned Newtonville commuter rail station is budgeted at $50 million.
The report also indicated a station wouldn’t be feasible until it can replace diesel commuter rail trains on the line with electric ones, which can start and stop much more quickly.
MBTA spokesperson Lisa Battiston said the agency “looks forward to engaging with Everett leaders and the Wynn Corporation as we work to establish a path forward for a new commuter rail station” when asked if it had a preferred station location..
