Former Greater Boston Casino Site Owner Dealt Blow in Court Battle over Land Price

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The dilapidated home owners of the parcel of land that is now occupied by the Encore Boston Harbor luxurious casino resort have been dealt a heavy blow in court docket in their effort to receive as mighty as an additional $40 million for the web site that they supplied to Wynn Accommodations almost a decade ago.

On June 16, Hang Kenneth Salinger of the Suffolk Remarkable Court docket dismissed a lawsuit towards the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that used to be initiated by an possession community operating as FBT Everett Realty LLC.

The firm argued in its swimsuit that it wrongfully received only $35 million for the assign from Wynn, even supposing the firm had previously agreed to pay $75 million. The Las Vegas casino operator diminished the mark after stories had emerged that Charles Lightbody, a local businessman with criminal ties and extra than one convictions, had been an investor in FBT.

FBT principals suggested court docket that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission prompted Wynn to prick the in the initiating negotiated mark by bigger than half of and argued that this spellbinding cut within the mark constituted an unfair “regulatory taking” by the negate agency. FBT also pointed out that Mr. Lightbody used to be no longer an investor at the time.

Wynn entered into an agreement with FBT to bag the fragment of land that its resort and casino resort now sits on in 2012. The positioning, positioned on the Mystic River in Everett, within the Greater Boston negate, had formerly been occupied by a chemical producer. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission granted a casino license to the Las Vegas gaming and hospitality large two years later. What now operates as Encore Boston Harbor opened doors in mid-2019.

A Prolonged Simply Fight

In 2016, Mr. Lightbody and two FBT companions have been acquitted of criminal charges that they’d been hiding their hobby within the firm. FBT then sued the Gaming Commission, looking out for to be paid an additional $40 million for the land.

The upright saga has dragged on for bigger than five years now. FBT principals blamed the fee for letting Wynn pay a tremendously lower cost to what the land would possibly maybe presumably need supplied for if purchased to changed into an unlimited-field store other than a luxurious casino resort.

In his most up-to-date ruling, Hang Salinger stated that FBT would possibly maybe presumably no longer have expected the land would be long-established for a casino when it purchased it for $8 million aid in 2009 because establishments of this blueprint have been unlawful in Massachusetts at the time.

Wynn became in entering the negate spherical 2012, which used to be about a year after Las Vegas-style casino became upright there. The operator paid FBT $100,000 every month to retain onto the valid to bag the land for $75 million, if it won the valid to operate the casino designated for the Greater Boston negate.

Essentially the most up-to-date court docket ruling extra pointed out that Gaming Commission workers conducted obligatory background tests by which it uncovered that Mr. Lightbody would possibly maybe presumably need an possession hobby in FBT.

Even supposing FBT claimed that Mr. Lightbody used to be no longer enthusiastic, fee investigators remained uncertain that that used to be the case and labored with Wynn to solve the command. In slack 2013, the casino operator and FBT amended their preliminary agreement to chop the lowering mark to $35 million.

Source: Former home owners of Everett casino property lose upright explain for hundreds and hundreds in extra funds for the land, The Boston Globe, June 25, 2021

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