With the opening date quickly approaching, Encore Boston Harbor will change the surrounding area and the city of Boston as a whole.
The casino will be approximately 3 million square feet. This all includes the hotel portion, casino, grounds and outdoor space.
The entire property runs to 3 million square feet, including the casino, the hotel portion, the outdoor space, the grounds, etc. There will be a 26,000 square feet spa which includes makeup stations, treatment rooms, shampoo stations, stylist stations, pedicure stations, manicure tables, and a barber station. The casino will be 210,000 square feet. There will be 3,150+ slot machines, 140+ table games, 85+ poker tables, 230+ table games total etc. the casino’s hotel will contain 671 guest rooms and suites.
The main issue for this development in this specific locale, as with everything in Boston, is traffic. The casino’s location is very close to the heart of Boston & Cambridge. It is right across the Mystic River from the thriving Assembly Row district in nearby Somerville, which has further increased traffic as a result of it’s plethora of shopping, dining & entertainment options.
As shown in the image above, unless you’re using a helicopter to fly in or taking a ferry, the only access points are through Broadway & RT 16 to Broadway in the north and Alford St through Sullivan Sq in the south. There is talks that a pedestrian bridge from Assembly Row which is southwest of the casino, is possibly in the works. Interstate 93 has two exits that can get you through Sullivan Sq or through Fellsway then RT 16, which are both known to be traffic nightmares as well as I-93. If the pedestrian bridge does move forward, that can provide some relief to the locals who are able to take the subway or a local bus.
The casino will be serviced by 5,500 employees where locals were given priority in the hiring process. There’s no telling the societal impacts will be in having legal gambling in the Boston area. Will there be more negative impacts than positive? Will this property attract more worldwide acts to showcase in Boston? How will housing prices be affected?
These are the few of many questions that I’m curious about and can only predict as there has never been a project of this type to hit Boston..
Coming Soon.. The Boston City Series.. .
