Paper City Development is looking to build a resort casino at Holyoke's Wyckoff County Club.
Wyckoff Country Club, located along Interstate 91 in Holyoke, would be home to a casino under a plan a new company called Paper City Development is pitching.HOLYOKE - A group that wants to develop a resort casino at Wyckoff Country Club is proposing a revenue-sharing agreement that would guarantee Holyoke and eight adjoining communities would each receive a piece of the action should the resort be given the go-ahead, officials said.
Paper City Development Company, LLC, in a statement issued Monday but embargoed until midnight, proposed voluntary revenue sharing agreement that would have the casino giving back 2.5 percent of its net revenue.
Holyoke, the host community, would receive 1.25 percent, while the neighboring communities of Chicopee, Westfield, Northampton, West Springfield, Easthampton, Southampton, South Hadley and Hadley would split another 1.25 percent, based on population.
Paper City's Partnership for Regional Progress PlanAccording to projected net revenues, that could mean Holyoke could receive $5 million, while Chicopee and Westfield, the two largest neighboring communities would receive $1.4 million and $1.05 million, respectively.
Hadley, the smallest neighbor which shares a few hundred yards of common border with Holyoke from opposite sides of the Connecticut River, would be eligible for $118,000.
Managing Partner Joseph Lashinger said in a prepared statement “We want to truly partner with our host community, Holyoke, and its neighboring cities and towns.”
Signing a revenue sharing agreement with communities, he said, is “the most concrete way we know of making these communities a genuine economic partner in a resort casino built in Holyoke.”
Paper City Development first floated the idea for a resort casino at the country club in June with meetings with Holyoke officials.
Members of the development company include Holyoke lawyer Aaron W. Wilson, the A.L. Cignoli Co. public relations firm, of Springfield, and former Springfield City Councilor Anthony Ravosa Jr., who now lives in Connecticut
Lashinger Jr.,who is from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is a a former Pennsylvania lawmaker who has been involved with the Harrah's and Bally's Entertainment casino companies, among others.
Lashinger said the idea for the revenue sharing came about in response to concerns from Senate Ways and Means Chairman Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, who has repeatedly stressed that local communities surrounding a casino are all impacted by it and should not be forgotten in the move to build casinos.
Ravosa said the revenue-sharing plan ensures that the benefits from a casino will go beyond Holyoke.
"We are also giving proper recognition on those communities neighboring Holyoke as important and valued partners in the success we hope to achieve by developing a resort casino at Wyckoff," he said.
“The immediate job creation and sizable economic benefits of this project will reverberate throughout the entire Pioneer Valley region for years to come, he said.