Image courtesy of Wynn Resorts.

The owners of the Encore Boston Harbor casino and 16.5 acres that surround it are looking for development partners to build up the neighborhood.

Executives at Wynn Resorts said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call that they company has fielded “many” calls about partnerships for developing the land around the casino entrance which the company reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring. As Banker & Tradesman reported in April, the casino is already helping drive a wave of hotel investments north of Boston.

“We do have 11 acres of land across the street where many developers have been talking to us about partnerships where we could have new hotels retail etc.,” Wynn CEO Matthew Maddox said in response to an analyst question. “So we’ve been thinking about that more as landlords and partners as opposed to outright developers. But first we’re going to ramp Encore Boston Harbor and then we’re going to watch the neighborhood build up.”

Maddox said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call that Wynn has been planning for about a 12-month ramp-up at Encore Boston Harbor, including finding the right promotions and incentives to get people into the casino’s 671 hotel rooms and to maximize revenue from its 3,158 slot machines – and to keep its customers away from regional competitors like MGM Springfield, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.