MGM Resorts to detail Springfield, Mass., casino plan

Five months after pulling the plug on its plan to develop a resort casino in the rural western Massachusetts town of Brimfield, MGM Resorts International, the Las Vegas-based gaming giant, is set to unveil a casino project for Springfield, the Bay State’s third-largest city.

MGM executives, including Jim Murren, chairman and chief executive officer, are expected to provide details and renderings of MGM’s proposed entertainment complex at an event late Wednesday morning at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.

The plan is one of as many as four Springfield proposals that would compete for the same commercial casino license that southeastern Connecticut’s Mohegan Tribe is expected to pursue in the town of Palmer.

MGM plans to develop a three-block parcel in Springfield’s South End, The Republican newspaper has reported.

Back in March, when it abandoned plans for the Rolling Hills Resort in Brimfield, MGM said it would seek an alternate casino site in western Massachusetts. In ending the Brimfield effort, company officials said they encountered obstacles to the project’s infrastructure needs. The site was to be accessible by a proposed highway ramp from the Massachusetts Turnpike.