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Image courtesy of Elkus Manfredi Architects
Wynn Resorts plans to add a concert venue and restaurant space to complement its Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett.
The Elkus Manfredi Architects-designed proposal, which the city’s Planning Board will hear on Dec. 13, will cover about one-third of the 16.5 acres casino owner Wynn Resorts owns across the street from Encore.
Wynn executives said before the pandemic that they were looking for development partners to turn the sites into an entertainment district that would support the casino. The sites cover roughly four city blocks along Broadway and back onto the city’s Exelon power station – slated to be decommissioned in 2024 – and a 95-acre oil and gas tank farm currently being marketed for redevelopment. City officials hope to encourage biomanufacturing on the tank farm site and hotels, concert venues and sports facilities on the Exelon site.
Plans filed with the Everett Planning Board show a 2-story, 20,000-square-foot restaurant, an 1,800-seat concert venue and a 2,212-space, 7-story parking garage rising on the block bounded by Broadway to the west and Dexter, Robin and Mystic streets to the south, east and north, respectively. The application does not describe the addition of any gaming facilities in this new development. The site is largely vacant at present, save a scrap yard – Wynn demolished most of the buildings on the parcel when it bought the land, converting the empty lots into parking areas.
Plans show the entire development being connected to the casino via a long, glass-enclosed footbridge that will form a gateway-like entrance to Everett for drivers and bus riders coming north from Boston, across the Mystic River. The concert venue’s walls facing west, toward Broadway, and north will be covered in a “media wall” that will be used to advertise events and provide public art displays.
Wynn executives are seeking special permits and a zoning variance for setbacks.
UPDATED 11 a.m., Dec. 3, 2021: This story has been updated to clarify that no gaming facilities are planned for this development.
