Foxwoods plans casino expansion, Route 2 bypass

Diane Scarponi

Thursday, April 3, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Foxwoods Resort Casino said Tuesday that it will build a $99 million casino expansion and would seek Connecticut's approval for a Route 2 bypass to ease traffic congestion.

The projects were both voted on by members of the casino's owner, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

The casino expansion is beginning immediately; the road project will take several months of planning, state review and another vote by tribal members before construction begins.

The expansion would add about 850 slot machines, a 200-seat restaurant, 200 new smoke-free bingo seats, shops and a 2,100-space parking garage to Foxwoods, which already is the largest casino in the United States.

It would be the first major addition at the casino near Ledyard since 2000, when Foxwoods completed work on a hotel, convention center and casino project called the Grand Pequot Tower.

Since then, Foxwoods' main competition, Mohegan Sun in nearby Uncasville, completed a $1 billion hotel, casino, arena and convention center expansion. The project generated buzz in the casino business, which constantly demands new attractions to add customers.

Foxwoods leaders said competition from Mohegan Sun was not the reason for the expansion. Rather, the casino wanted to respond to customers' requests for more parking, restaurants and slot machines, all of which are crowded to capacity on weekends, holidays and in the summer.

"This one, we think, will be very popular with our midlevel and more local regulars, because it adds the products they are looking for," said Robert DeSalvio, Foxwoods' executive vice president of marketing.

The new casino and parking would be located near the Rainmaker Casino, the oldest part of the sprawling casino complex.

Construction is scheduled to be completed by the summer, in time for the seasonal rush, DeSalvio said.

"We're able to do it quickly, so to be able to get a quick rate of return for the tribe," he said.

The plans will address some of the advantages in parking and location that Mohegan Sun has over Foxwoods, said Mohegan Sun's executive vice president of marketing, Mitchell Etess.

"I never make any assumption or speculation as to what is behind any of their plans, but certainly what they are doing makes sense," Etess said.

Tribal members have argued over the last few years over how quickly the casino should expand and how much debt the tribe should take on. This project would be funded by the tribe's existing line of credit.

Tuesday's announcement was not the giant, new development that had been rumored in southeastern Connecticut for the past year.

"This is not the 'big one' everyone has been talking about," said tribal spokesman Bruce MacDonald.

DeSalvio said, however, the tribe continues to study and plan for other expansions in the future.

The road project calls for a bypass that would run for 1.8 miles, parallel to Route 2 from the Preston line into North Stonington, where the Mashantuckets are building two golf courses.

Once the bypass is built, the tribe would like to take the existing Route 2 and turn it into an internal road within the casino resort complex, MacDonald said.

"The state would get a brand-new road, and a road that would allow people to go completely by Foxwoods if they didn't want to come," MacDonald said.

The state Department of Transportation would have to approve the proposal.

The tribe had no estimate of the cost, but the tribe would pay for the whole project if the tribal members approved it, MacDonald said. The tribe already owns the land on both sides of the proposed bypass.

The state required the Mashantuckets to improve Route 2 when Foxwoods expanded years ago, said Robert Congdon, the first selectman and state representative from Preston.

This proposal goes well beyond what was discussed at the time, he said.

"Overall, I think it's going to be a big improvement for people traveling Route 2, when they go to the beaches in the summer or are going from Norwich to Stonington -- for anyone not going to the resort," he said.

Area residents had opposed two other bypass proposals.

Ledyard Mayor Wesley Johnson said he must consult with Ledyard planners before issuing an opinion on the project.

Johnson said he was glad that newly elected tribal Chairman Michael Thomas met with area town leaders and offered to hold a public forum on the plan.

Thomas pledged when he was elected that he would try to improve casino-town relations, which have been strained over Foxwoods' impact on the communities and the tribe's attempts to add land to its reservation.

"This is a step in the right direction," Johnson said. "It's a movement showing that he really meant that he was trying to improve relations."