Brimfield, population about 3,500, is currently best known for its outdoor antique fairs, held three times a year.
The MGM facility would directly produce about 3,000 permanent jobs, and indirectly generate thousand more, MGM chairman and chief executive James J. Murren promised at a press conference yesterday. Several thousand construction jobs would be created during the 30-to-36-month construction period, he said. MGM runs a number of high-profile Las Vegas resorts, including the Bellagio, featured in the 2001 movie “Ocean’s Eleven,’’ the pyramid-shaped Luxor, and Mandalay Bay.
For Callahan, the announcement followed three months of preparation, as he slowly unfurled the notion of putting a casino on his land.
He floated the idea at a public meeting of the Board of Selectmen in October and spent the next several months meeting with town boards, department heads, and key members of the community “to get their ideas, what they would desire in the project, and the things they didn’t want to see,’’ he said.
The soft-sell in Brimfield contrasts with the Wynn Resorts proposal in Foxborough, which shocked much of the town when residents learned of it in early December. Opponents began organizing in Foxborough almost immediately; public meetings on the topic consistently draw hundreds of angry residents.
In doing his research in Brimfield, Callahan heard one worry repeatedly: traffic.
In response, MGM pledged yesterday that if the project is approved by the state and by town voters, the casino would be sequestered in the woods, with no access over the town’s roads, except for emergency vehicles. Visitors would arrive by way of a new exit from the turnpike, even visitors who live in town.
Developers conceded yesterday that winning approval of a new highway exit, which is key to their proposal, would be a lengthy process that they plan to initiate soon.
