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Retail developer eyes project in city's Hicks-Logan
area
By Aaron Nicodemus
Standard-Times staff writer
 NEW
BEDFORD -- A major national retail developer that owns
the Dartmouth Mall and 55 other malls across the country
has partnered with a casino developer to develop 30 or
more acres in the Hicks-Logan section of the city.
The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), a
publicly-traded $3.5 billion company based in
Philadelphia with regional malls from Maine to Florida,
has signed a 90-day contract to develop land controlled
by Northeast Resorts, a casino development company from
Western Massachusetts.
PREIT Executive Vice President Harvey A. Diamond said he
envisions a shopping center on the site, with
restaurants, residential properties and perhaps a
hotel/conference center. He said he would like the
development to be anchored by a major entertainment
draw, like a casino, but said the development could
stand on its own without one.
“We’re in the retail business, that’s what we do,” he
said today at a meeting at Mar-Lees Seafood in New
Bedford. “We don’t build casinos, that’s not our
business.”
PRIET’s partner in the development is Northeast Resorts,
a Western Massachusetts development company whose
primary focus is casino gaming. Leon Dragone of East
Longmeadow has spent his career trying to establish a
casino in Massachusetts, so far unsuccessfully. His
partner in Northeast Resorts is H. Steven Norton of Las
Vegas, a former executive at the Sands Hotel and Casino
and a developer of gambling destinations throughout the
South and Midwest.
Mr. Diamond said PRIET will take the next 90 days
performing its due diligence on the site: environmental
testing, negotiating with other property owners in Hicks
Logan, drawing up concept plans, and meeting informally
with city officials to hear their ideas about the
property. At the end of 90 days, Mr. Diamond said PRIET
will then decide whether to move forward.
Mr. Dragone said that his company will continue to
pursue a casino at the site, and has had discussions
with the Wampanoags of Aquinnah, the tribe that made an
unsuccessful push for a casino a decade ago.
Mr. Dragone and Mr. Diamond had a meeting today with
Mayor Scott W. Lang and Matthew A. Morrissey, executive
director of the New Bedford Economic Development
Council.
>From the city’s point of view, the plans for the site
are well and good, but saving at least some of the jobs
at Revere Copper & Brass is paramount while developers
craft their plans.
“Revere has an offer on the table, and Mr. Dragone
indicated to me today that he would not stand in the way
of that offer,” Mayor Lang said, referring to an offer
from a Cleveland financier to lease a building from
Revere and operate the plating portion of its business,
saving about half of the 85 jobs. Revere has rejected
the offer as unworkable.
“We do not have a problem with the deal,” said Mr.
Dragone. “We would work with the city to keep those jobs
there, for as long as we are able.”
Contact Aaron Nicodemus at
anicodemus@s-t.com
Publication date: June 13, 2007 |
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