Wynn Resorts has completed its $34-million purchase of a 30-acre parcel off Horizon Way in Everett as it proceeds with plans to build a $1.75-billion casino and resort on the Mystic River.
The Las Vegas gambling company closed on the transaction on Friday from Cambridge-based FBT Everett Realty LLC, which is affiliated with Cambridge-based Denunzio Group.
Three partners of FBT Everett Realty were indicted by state and federal authorities in October for allegedly concealing the financial interest of Charles Lightbody, a convicted felon and reputed organized crime figure, in representations to state regulators about the planned casino site.
Dustin DeNunzio, Anthony Gattineri and Lightbody misled regulators in an attempt to show that Lightbody had sold his interest in the property in 2012, the indictments stated.
FBT acquired the parcel in 2009 for $8 million, with Lightbody providing more than $1 million toward the purchase, prosecutors said. If the trio is convicted they could be ordered to forfeit the proceeds from the land sale.
In awarding the sole eastern Massachusetts casino license, the Massachusetts gaming commission in September chose Wynn Resorts’ proposal for the Everett casino over Uncasville, Conn.-based Mohegan Sun’s bid for a gambling resort at Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston.
Wynn’s latest plans call for an increase in the size of the hotel from 500 to 630 rooms, including 150 luxury suites, The Boston Globe reported last week. The casino complex also would include nearly 100,000 square feet of retail stores, eight restaurants and a nightclub.
Wynn Resorts also has an agreement to buy two acres of land for $6 million from the MBTA that would be used to build access roads into the casino site.
Clean-up costs associated with removing arsenic and lead in the soil at the site, a former Monsanto chemical factory, are estimated at $30 million.
Construction of the Everett casino is expected to begin in early summer, unless it is delayed by legal challenges. The city of Somerville in December filed a lawsuit against the gaming commission challenging its approval of the Wynn license, citing the alleged misrepresentations regarding the land ownership.
