MGM's demolition for casino project begins in January

When MGM held the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Springfield casino in late March with the former Zanetti school building as the backdrop for photographs with construction workers and machinery no one would have predicted the building would still be standing nine months later. 2015 was a year of delay and downsizing for the casino project.

But what has been billed as the largest economic development project in the history of western Massachusetts, and the biggest single construction project in Springfield in a generation, sputtered along for most of this year tangled in regulatory red tape and protracted negotiations over the fates of historic buildings that needed to be razed or moved.

As the delays mounted, so did MGM’s costs. By the end of the year, the project’s budget had increased by USD 150M, even as MGM redesigned the hotel-casino complex to keep expenses in check. Top MGM officials were also called on to repeatedly refute scuttlebutt that the casino industry giant was looking for a way out of the Springfield project.

"We have not gone anywhere, we will not go anywhere," said MGM President Bill Hornbuckle during a visit to Springfield in October.

A delay of at least a year in the start of the Interstate 91 viaduct reconstruction in Springfield also impacted MGM’s plans. Citing likely traffic disruptions due to the highway work, MGM Springfield President Mike Mathis announced a revised construction schedule that calls for the casino to open on Sept. 5, 2018, a year later than planned.

"We feel strongly this is the right decision. It is a difficult decision," Mathis said at meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in June.