With New Casino, A Big Bet on Springfield

Hanging conspicuously in the middle of the new MGM Resorts International casino here is a massive framed picture from 1888, showing every member of the Free and Accepted Masons Lodge, Springfield Commandery #6.

It is a sea of stone-faced men with comically wild facial hair, an image that is at once fascinating and weird. And yet it fits the offbeat décor of the state’s first resort casino, which is brimming with appreciative nods to the city’s history and curious fragments from the past.

It looks like no casino you’ve ever seen... (Read More)

Drawing from city's proud past, can casino spur revival?

Standing on Springfield's Main Street, the nearly $1 billion resort casino meant to spark a downtown renaissance doesn't immediately scream Las Vegas glitz. There's no neon-lit billboard, no soaring tower of glass and steel.

Instead, two modest signs bearing the MGM initials are set against a backdrop of low-slung brick and stone facades meant to blend with — not dominate — the historic streetscape of this storied but struggling New England city.

"That's the thing we're most proud of," said company president Bill Hornbuckle before casino officials... (Read More)

Rise Up Springfield: Streetwise MBA

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Twelve local business owners graduated from Rise Up Springfield's "Streetwise MBA" program Tuesday evening. 

"Streetwise MBA" gives small business owners the knowledge needed to continue to grow in Springfield.

The six month program connected the entrepreneurs with local experts, and introduced them to the tools and tactics needed to more effectively run their businesses, and set them up for long term growth… (Read More)

Western Mass Developers Conference

SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Charlie Baker spoke before a large audience of business executives and property developers Tuesday at the MassMutual Center, but at times he was talking to just two men.

State Sen. Eric P. Lesser, D-Longmeadow, and State Rep. Joseph F. Wagner, D-Chicopee, each chair the committees reviewing the Baker administration's $610 million economic development bill... (Read More)

Phoenix Award Winner: Springfield Union Station

SPRINGFIELD --  The Phoenix Awards Institute has recognized Springfield Union Station as the best example of brownfield redevelopment in the country for 2017.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, the driving force behind the station's $95-million rehabilitation into a modern intermodal transportation hub, gathered Monday with city officials to celebrate the award… (Read More)

CRRC

SPRINGFIELD -- Technicians at the Great Boston transit system's rail yard are test driving Springfield's future.

The prototype Orange Line cars represent a step toward greater reliability and frequency of service for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

What's more, the cars carry with them the hopes CRRC, the largest manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the world, holds for expanding into the North American market.

The prototype cars going through "dynamic" -- meaning moving -- testing this month at the MBTA's Wellington station in Medford were built by CRRC in China. 

But starting in April, Chinese-owned CRRC will start manufacturing the Orange cars at CRRC's new $95 million factory on Page Boulevard in East Springfield. Sometime at midyear the factory will start making... (Read More)

Major Expansion at MassMutual

SPRINGFIELD --MassMutual announced plans Thursday for a major expansion in Massachusetts including a $300 million investment and 2,000 jobs to the Commonwealth over the next four years. Those 2,000 jobs include 1,500 at corporate headquarters in Springfield and 500 at a new Boston campus on Fan Pier, which the company plans to build.

The move comes amid a trend in Springfield where MassMutual has laid off hundreds in recent years and has moved jobs in its Barings subsidiary elsewhere… (Read more)

MGM Springfield: Statistics on diversity hiring

SPRINGFIELD -- The chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission said Friday that he and other members are "thrilled" by MGM Springfield's track record on workforce diversity in hiring employees, contractors and vendors for its $960 million resort casino.

 

The comments from Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby came after commission staff gave glowing reports and statistics on diversity hiring during a meeting at the MassMutual Center in Springfield… (Read more)

MGM Springfield: Partnerships with Springfield Businesses

SPRINGFIELD -- The chefs uniforms from MGM Springfield are starting to show up at Park Cleaners with stains.

The $960 million resort casino in the South End is complete and the Aug. 24 opening date is approaching. That means chefs are in their kitchens cooking and that means Park Cleaners, an 83-year-old family business in Springfield, is bracing for an onslaught of dirty laundry.

Park Cleaners, 262 Allen St., has a cleaning contract from MGM Springfield, part of what was expected to be $50 million a year in goods and services contracted by MGM from local businesses and suppliers. The list includes king-size mattresses from Yankee Mattress Factory in Agawam and Italian delicacies for hospitality gift baskets from Frigo's in the South End… (Read More)

MGM Springfield: MGM Enters a frenzied home stretch

That’s how many “discrete tasks” Alex Dixon said he and the ever-growing team at MGM Springfield must complete before the $950 million facility can open its doors to the public at 11 a.m. on Aug. 24.

12,704!

Not ‘more than 12,000.’ Not ‘12,700 or so.’

12,704. And you thought you had a lot of lines on your ‘to-do’ list.“And those are just the things we thought about as we put together our critical paths,” said Dixon, general manager of MGM Springfield, who managed to find a few moments to speak with BusinessWest late last month (and he had to work hard at it). He couldn’t say how many of those tasks he and his team had drawn a proverbial line through, but he hinted strongly that, while considerable progress has been made, there were still quite a few (thousand) to go… (Read more)

 

Bike Share

SPRINGFIELD -- Have you tried ValleyBike Share?

The bicycle sharing system has been up and running since late June and ValleyBike Share bicycles are starting to crop up at docking stations around the region.

Have you tried one?

The Republican is interested in talking with customers. Was the bike easy to ride? Was the docking station in a convenient location? Was the bike easy to free from the docking station? Will you use ValleyBike Share often? (Read More)

Page last updated:  Monday, August 20, 2018 12:02 pm