The Rhode Island town of Tiverton’s planning board last week officially approved of the $75 million Twin River casino that will be built a few hundred feet from the state line with Massachusetts. The vote was 6-1-2. That means that construction can begin right away as soon as a building permit is issued.
Neighbors of the property (the “abutters”) who had filed an appeal of the preliminary filed that appeal one day too late, so their objections won’t be a factor now, according to the city clerk’s office.
Besides a 77,500-square foot casino with 1,000 slots and 32 gaming tables, there will be an 84-room hotel, a restaurant, bar, entertainment venue and two-level garage, all on 46.6 acres.
The voters in 2016 authorized Twin River to move its Newport Grand casino from Newport, where it was largely tolerated rather than supported, to Tiverton. Although the state vote margin was substantial, it was approved by the town by a very small plurality. That meant that there was a significant minority of the city who oppose the casino, and who tried to slow it down during the various normal city permit approval process, such as requiring the developer to deposit a $240,000 surety to ensure that the streets are repaved after being opened up to take sewer and water lines to serve the casino. Some also challenged the project on the grounds that not enough environmental review was done, but the city denied that too. So did the state’s Department of Environmental Managements, which called any environmental impacts “insignificant.”
Some environmental mitigation was required, such as building an 80-foot bridge over wetlands. The majority of the 51-acre property is wetlands. However, only 21 acres will be developed. Another traffic amenity the casino will be funding as a roundabout to ease traffic at two intersections.
Twin River also owns and operates the Twin River Casino in Lincoln. The company also operates a casino in Mississippi and a racetrack in Colorado.
Rhode Island’s casinos are the third largest source of revenue for the state government, paying 17 percent of table revenues and 70 percent of slots revenue, for an annual total of about $300 million.
The state allowed the Tiverton casino along the border as a way of making it more competitive against the Bay State’s casino. Its principal rival will be the Plainridge Park racino, which has been operating for two years, and Connecticut’s Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, which operated under 20 miles from the state line. But it will also have to keep in mind the $950 million MGM Springfield that will open in about a year and the huge $2.4 billion Wynn Boston Harbor that will follow the next year.
