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Similar to Trending developments vol 3, issue 3
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Trending developments vol 3, issue 3
- 1. Free Tree Program 2 Fall River by the Numbers 3 Wordpress TA Workshop 3 Available Space in CWT Professional 4 Inside this issue: March 2014Volume 3, Issue 3 F A L L R I V E R O F F I C E O F E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T Trending Developments FROED Board of Directors: Officers Mayor William A Flanagan, Chairman/Ex-officio Paul S. Medeiros, President James M. Karam, Vice President Frank Marchione, Treasurer Alan F. Macomber, Clerk At-Large Members Joseph Baptista Paul C. Burke Francisco Cabral Nicholas M. Christ Mark Cordeiro Larry Couto Carlos A. DaCunha Jerry Donovan Bruce Fernandes Alfredo M. Franco Craig A. Jesiolowski Stephen R. Karam Michael Lund Joseph A. Marshall George Matouk, Jr. Joan Menard Kenneth R. Rezendes Anthony Riccitelli Joseph Ruggeiro, Sr. James P. Sabra Len Sullivan Ex-Officio Members Daniel Abraham Joseph D. Camara Carl Garcia Craig A. Jesiolowski Atty. William G. Kenney Meg Mayo-Brown John J. Sbrega Corporate Counsel Atty. James W. Clarkin Non-Voting Members Robert A. Mellion FROED Staff: Kenneth Fiola, Jr., Esq. Executive Vice President Stephen Parr, Director of Finance Janet A. Misturado, Director of Administration Louise A. Methot, Financial Services Representative Maria R. Doherty, Network Administrator Lynn M. Oliveira, Economic Development Coordinator Fall River Office of Economic Development One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722 Phone: (508) 324-2620 Fax: (508) 677-2840 http://froed.org On January 28, 2014 Mayor Flanagan hosted a press conference to announce Foxwoods Resort Casino’s interest in establishing a resort casino within Fall Riv- er. Foxwoods’ CEO and President, Scott Butera, also participated in the press conference to express Fox- woods’ interest in becoming part of the Fall River com- munity. At that time both parties stressed the quick timeline under which the project would need to move and welcomed proposals from property owners with parcels 30 acres or larger. Parcel proposals were due on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 and six (6) proposals were sub- mitted by Fall River property owners. On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Foxwoods reached an agreement with a property owner to purchase an option on a 30 acre parcel located in the south end of the City. While neither Fox- woods nor City representa- tives will confirm the loca- tion of the site, media outlets have consistently reported that the location is the Har- bour Mall, Kmart and Sta- ples plaza. Now that a site has been se- lected and an option on the land has been purchased by (Continued on page 2) FOXWOODS MOVING FORWARD IN FALL RIVER Looking for a job? Visit froed.org then select the “Current Employment Opportunities” tab. Next click “Job Search” and this will launch an interactive database. Within this database alone there are currently 736 employment opportunities within a 5 mile radius of Fall River. 736 Jobs Available
- 2. Page 2 Trending Developments (Continued from page 1) Foxwoods, Foxwoods and the City must negotiate a Host Community Agree- ment. The purpose of the Host Community Agree- ment is to outline the obli- gations and benefits award- ed to each party. For the City this means an outline of economic benefits, jobs commitments, and commu- nity benefits to be per- formed by Foxwoods. With regards to economic bene- fits, these include payments to the City to offset direct and indirect impacts on the City and its residents both prior to the resort casino opening as well as annual payments thereafter. Eco- nomic benefits also include Community Development Grants and other payments issued annually to enhance the quality of life in the City. The jobs commitment for a project of this magni- tude customarily includes temporary construction po- sitions as well as permanent position within the resort casino in the thousands. Additional community ben- efits also include required annual entertainment initia- tives at local venues, dona- tions to local organizations and support to local busi- nesses. Mayor William A. Flanagan recognizes the importance of this project for the City as well as the importance in the community’s involvement in the process noting, “The construction of a resort style casino will create thousands of jobs for our citizens and will generate millions of dol- lars in additional revenue for our community. I look forward to working direct- ly with the community in the upcoming months to mitigate any concerns they may have in order to make this project a reality.” The City must also issue a Referendum vote to estab- lish whether the communi- ty accepts the resort casino project. The ballot will include an outline of the terms included in the Host Community Agreement. The Referendum vote must be requested by the Mayor. The requirements state that the vote must be held no earlier than 60 days and no later than 90 days from the date of the request. As such, it is anticipated that the referendum will take place between early/mid June and early July. Kenneth Fiola, Jr., Execu- tive Vice President of the Fall River Office of Eco- nomic Development fully supports the resort casino project noting, “This pro- ject represents not only an opportunity to create thou- sands of full-time and per- manent jobs, but also help stabilize public safety and education as well as im- prove the physical condi- tion of the City through infrastructure and open space upgrades.” There will also public fo- rums regarding the casino resort project over the up- coming months. These forums will allow commu- nity members to learn about the project as well as voice their input. Once the Host Community Agreement is finalized and if the referendum vote passes in favor of the pro- ject, Foxwoods will then submit its application to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for a Catego- ry 1 license for Region C (defined as Southeastern MA). This application is due to the Gaming Com- mission in late July. It should be noted that Fox- woods has already submit- ted a Request for Applica- tions, Phase-1 (RFA-1) application, which was approved by the Gaming Commission. The applica- tion that Foxwoods will need to file in July is Re- quest for Applications, Phase-2 (RFA-2) applica- tion. The Gaming Com- mission is expected to se- lect licensees from the RFA-2 applications as ear- ly as October or November 2014. Join the Fall River Street Tree Planting Program, Inc., U.S. Forest Service and Massachusetts Depart- ment of Conservation & Recreation in planting a tree in your yard, in front of your home or business. This is a FREE program open to citizens of the Sandy Beach Neighbor- hood. Not only do trees add an aesthetic value to your property, but they also clean the air, provide shade and increase canopy cover, cut down on use of air conditioning, block cold wind and decrease the use of fuel, enhance land- scaping and increase your property value. For additional information about this free tree pro- gram please contact: Mary Ann Wordell at 508-679- 8887, Louise Kaczynski at louisek53@comcast.net or Perry Long at 508-676- 0324. Foxwoods Project Moves Forward Get a Tree for FREE
- 3. Page 3 Trending Developments Fall River by the Numbers… *Figures based on the 2013 American Gaming Association Survey of Gaming Entertainment. State-by-State Economic Impact: Commercial Casinos State Current # of Operating Casinos Casino Employees Casino Employee Wages** Gross Casino Gaming Revenue Gaming Tax Revenue Colorado 41 9,278 $216.74 million $766.25 million $104.26 million Delaware 3 2,775 $105.19 million $526.67 million $217.44 million Florida 6 3,319 $104.66 million $427.89 million $161.76 million Illinois 10 7,687 $324.48 million $1.639 billion $574.34 million Indiana 13 12,543 $461.82 million $2.614 billion $806.56 million Iowa 18 9,558 $341.09 million $1.467 billion $334.43 million Kansas 3 1,344 $50.45 million $341.15 million $92.17 million Louisiana 18 15,061 $631 million $2.404 billion $579.45 million Maine 2 879 $11.9 million $99.22 million $43.11 million Maryland 3 499 $17.47 million $377.81 million $218.20 million Michigan 3 7,972 $366.53 million $1.417 billion $319.75 million Mississippi 30 23,377 $847.66 million $2.251 billion $272.73 million Missouri 13 9,631 $335.9 million $1.769 billion $471.41 million Nevada 265 170,206 $7.693 billion $10.860 billion $868.60 million New Jersey 12 34,726 $912.22 million $3.051 billion $254.84 million New Mexico 5 918 $29.77 million $241.48 million $62.79 million New York 9 5,233 $189.63 million $1.802 billion $822.67 million Ohio 4 4,197 $91.27 million $429.83 million $138.18 million Oklahoma 2 870 Not disclosed $113.06 million $20.38 million Pennsylvania 11 10,162 $339.77 million $3.158 billion $1.487 billion Rhode Island 2 Not disclosed Not disclosed $527.96 million $328.98 million South Dakota 35 1,686 $38.17 million $107.36 million $16.62 million West Virginia 5 4,351 $134.68 million $948.81 million $402.50 million **Wages include tips and benefits.
- 4. One Government Center Phone: 508-324-2620 Fax: 508-677-2840 Mission statement of the Fall River Office of Economic Development: Incorporated in 1978 as a 501(c)(4) corporation to promote the prosperity and general welfare of the citizens of Fall River through the stimulation of economic strength and expansion of new and existing business. Keeping Fall River working in Fall River. F A L L R I V E R O F F I C E O F E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T For more information please visit our website: www.froed.org Page 4 WordPress is a state-of- the-art web publishing platform, developed by hundreds of community volunteers and used by over 25 million people. Best of all, WordPress is free! In this Hands-on Beginners WordPress Workshop you will be building and launching a self-hosted website. All you need to have prior to the workshop is your own domain name and hosting capabilities. First you’ll learn about the WordPress dash- board and how to navi- gate the administration panel. Then you’ll start creating pages and posts, and learn how to organ- ize your content. This FREE event will be held on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 from 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. at the Cherry & Webb Building, 139 South Main Street – 4th floor, Fall River, MA and is sponsored by the Fall Riv- er Office of Economic De- velopment. Space is limited, so please register on line at www.msbdc.org/semass and click on event calen- dar or call us at 508-673- 9783 x 10. Metered park- ing is available on South Main Street. Additional parking is available for a nominal fee at the Pearl Street garage, which is one block from the building on the corner of Pearl and Anawan Streets. The Fall River Office of Economic Development (www.froed.org) helps businesses evaluate the many advantages of locat- ing in Fall River, offering aggressive incentive pro- grams including low- interest financing, tax ex- emptions, employee recruit- ment and training services, and site selection assis- tance. Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U. S. Small Busi- ness Administration. Wordpress Basics Technical Assistance Workshop Date Topic April 23, 2014 Wordpress 201 May 7, 2014 8 Steps to Successful Invention May 21, 2014 Advanced Google Upcoming Workshops: Offices with a View The CWT Professional Building located at 139 South Main Street is the home of the former Cherry & Webb Department Store. The space has since been converted to retail and office space. Current tenants include Drewbi Salon, Café Arpeggio, UMass Dartmouth, and McDonald Law Offices among others. Conven- iently located across from the new courthouse this space offers con- venience and value. Now available: Two water view offices consisting of 2,250 sq. ft and 3,700 sq ft. A convenient downtown location and beautiful views make this space ideal for professionals looking to expand or relocate. Anyone interested in visiting the available space or learning more about the CWT Professional Building should contact FROED at 508-324-2620.