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Ante Up
Foxwoods Fuels Casino Construction Push with $700 Million Expansion
The new 2.2-million-sq-ft complex adds more amenities to the mix in Connecticut’s ever-expanding casino resort marketplace.
by Debra Wood
Sure, you can gamble at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., which has 7,000 slot machines and 380 table games. You can play golf and relax at the resort, too.
 But the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns the facility, decided its complex needed more on the menu, and the result is construction of a new $700 million expansion called the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.
“It’s the next step in generating the next level of business,” says John Rooney, executive director of resort development for Foxwoods. “The entertainment and convention business are two new drivers [that are] not currently at Foxwoods.”
With those two sectors in mind, the tribal nation is building a 2.2-million-sq-ft addition that will feature a hotel, theater, spa, restaurants, retail, meeting and convention space, and, of course, more casino floor. When it opens in March 2008, the new section will connect via a 400-ft-long pedestrian bridge to the existing 6-million-sq-ft hotel and casino complex.
Rooney says Foxwoods officials want the new theater to help the facility lure larger performing acts, and in turn more visitors to the complex on weekends. They also expect more midweek business from the convention facilities. He says the resort is aiming for an upscale theme that will demand high quality in the construction effort to accommodate a high-end design suitable to attract renowned chefs and luxury retailers.
“This is a new market we are trying to attract, and in order to do that you have to raise the bar on the design and construction,” he adds.
The new expansion will also be the first focus of an alliance that the Mashantucket Pequot nation formed last spring with MGM Mirage of Las Vegas, a hotel and gaming company that owns and operates 23 properties in Nevada, Mississippi, and Michigan. Among various initiatives in the pairing, MGM Mirage is consulting with Foxwoods on the development process and may help the Connecticut resort add dining, entertainment, and retail amenities it has access to under existing licensing agreements.
Rooney acknowledges that the Foxwoods project also responds to competition from Mohegan Sun, another tribal-run casino in nearby Uncasville, Conn., though he calls the rivalry “friendly” because both are enjoying strong business.
A year after Foxwoods broke ground in fall 2005, the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut announced its own $740 million expansion. The effort, dubbed “Project Horizon,” will break ground this summer, adding 1.4 million sq ft in a hotel, music hall, retail, dining, and gaming facility on the 240-acre Mohegan Sun resort.
“New England and the Northeast is one of the largest population centers in the country,” says Joe Perini, vice president and project executive for Perini Building of Framingham, Mass., construction manager on the Foxwoods project. “When you compare this to other areas of the country that also have casinos, this area doesn’t have that many facilities.”
Big Scope and High-End Standards
The Foxwoods-MGM project entails a 29-story tower that will have 824 rooms and suites, as well as the 4,000-seat theater, a 25,000-sq-ft spa, and 110,000 sq ft worth of meeting and convention space. The project also includes a 3,000-space, precast concrete parking garage.
After winning a design competition, Paul Steelman Design Group of Las Vegas, which specializes in casino and hospitality design, completed a conceptual design plan for the project. HKS of Dallas is the architect of record.
“The common theme throughout the interior is to have an ageless, contemporary design that is not trendy and will [not] be out of style five or 10 years from now,” says Kirby Chadwell, principal in charge and project manager for HKS. “It will stand up over time.”
Chadwell says that timeless look will be visible in the exterior of the low-rise, structural-steel building, which will be faced in plaster, stone, and glass, as well as in the cast-in-place hotel tower, which will be clad in metal and glass panels.
Guests will enter the new complex through a large circular lobby filled with natural light before proceeding into the casino and convention space. Wilson Associates of Dallas created the interior design, which Rooney says aims to attract a younger clientele through its contemporary theme.
For the grounds, Cairone & Kaupp of Philadelphia, the landscape architect, developed a site concept that blends mature plants, significant stands of evergreens, and dense plantings in the exterior gardens, boulevards, and pathways. The site backs up to a 2,000-acre great cedar swamp.
“There are a number of terraces because the land is sloped, so we created level areas with substantial retaining structures,” says Joseph Cairone, principal landscape architect. “[The mature plantings] give the look of having been there for a while.”
Given that the expansion is bounded on three sides by wetlands and is isolated from the existing casino buildings, construction activity has not affected guests of the existing complex, Perini says.
That was fortunate because constructing the cast-in-place concrete foundations required extensive rock blasting. The project team removed and crushed the blasted rock for placement as fill in other sections of the site. The project did not require any wetlands mitigation efforts.
Construction is running on a fast schedule despite the lack of finished designs, Perini says. The contractor team started the job with about 20 percent of the design and began with a foundation, steel, and shell package. When mechanical and electrical planning lagged, Perini brought in mechanical and electrical contractors to help finish the design and start work in the field.
The work is progressing on that fast pace, with the hotel topping out last month.
“The design is trying to keep up with construction,” Perini adds. “It creates unique challenges, because you need to get information to continue to build.”
Key Players
Owner: Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Mashantucket, Conn.
Construction Manager: Perini Building, Framingham, Mass.
Project Manager: Bertino & Associates, Atlantic City; URS Corp., San Francisco
Conceptual Design: Paul Steelman Design Group, Las Vegas
Architect: HKS, Dallas Interior Design: Wilson Associates, Dallas
Mechanical Engineer: Finnegan Erickson Associates, Henderson, Nev.
Curtain Wall: Curtain Wall Design & Consulting, Dallas
Structural Engineer: Cagley Harman & Associates, King of Prussia, Pa.
Landscape Architect: Cairone & Kaupp, Philadelphia
Lighting Consultant: Craig Roberts Design Associates, Dallas
Parking Consultant: Desman Associates, Wellesley, Mass.
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