Everett committee seeks clearer negotiating priorities as Wynn/Encore expansion talks continue

Everett City’s Government Operations and Public Safety Committee on May 9 pressed the administration for specific negotiating priorities in talks with developer Wynn (Encore) over a proposed Lower Broadway expansion, and voted to keep the matter in committee while inviting the developer to brief the council.

The committee heard a written update from Mayor DeMaria stating negotiations are ongoing and that no final terms have been reached. The mayor’s communication, read into the record, said he will continue to provide updates as talks proceed.

Why it matters: councilors said the city should secure direct community benefits — including public-safety infrastructure, education funding and local business investment — rather than leave those details unclear during private negotiations. Councilor Mimes criticized the level of detail in the mayor’s update, saying, “we're still being left in the dark,” and urged the administration to provide a clear set of priorities the city is pursuing. Councilor Pietrutugno told the committee the council should press for more than a fire station, saying, “We want money for the schools. We want money for the community.”

Mayor DeMaria’s chief of staff, who addressed the committee in person, summarized the administration’s view of recent media attention: executives for Wynn discussed the project on a corporate earnings call and reported they had slowed or paused some work because financial terms were unresolved. The chief of staff said, “We continue to be in conversations with representatives of WIN,” and that the mayor has made public-safety (including a fire facility in lower Broadway) a clear priority for the city in negotiations.

Committee members pressed staff on several specific issues the administration said are part of project filings and prior reviews. Staff noted the MEPA process and Mass. Gaming Commission filings describe transportation and mitigation steps, including a publicly accessible pedestrian overpass across Lower Broadway and plans intended to reduce parking and greenhouse emissions. In the filing, staff said the developer reduced parking in one element by 300 spaces and by 362 spaces in the plan’s totality; the administration presented those changes as efforts to address multimodal access and mitigate traffic impacts.

The administration also said the city engaged a consultant to analyze casino-related revenue streams to inform financial negotiations, acknowledging that gaming in Massachusetts is regulated differently than in other states and that direct comparisons are limited.

What the committee did: members voted to keep the item in committee, to ask the administration to provide the top negotiating priorities it is advancing, and to invite representatives of Wynn/Encore to present their public materials at a future full-council meeting so the new council can review the current proposal. The committee’s motion passed on an affirmative voice vote.

Next steps: the administration is expected to submit the list of negotiating priorities requested by the committee and the council will invite Wynn/Encore to present the materials they previously filed with state agencies and shared at public hearings.