The Jordan Boys and Girls Club Breakfast Series welcomed Robert DeSalvio, who serves as president of Encore Boston Harbor, as its featured speaker at the clubhouse on Willow Street.
Robert DeSalvio, president of Encore Boston Harbor, speaks at the Jordan Boys and Girls Club Breakfast on Nov. 8 at the clubhouse on Willow Street.
Attendees heard details about the $2.6 billion 5-star-hotel and casino project slated for Everett, with an opening targeted for June 2019. This development stands as Massachusetts’ largest private single-phase undertaking in the state’s history, according to DeSalvio’s presentation.
“It’s amazing how big this is,” remarked JBGC Breakfast Chair Mark Robinson.
Ground was broken in August 2016, DeSalvio explained. “From the very beginning, we said we were going to do this project in 34 months, start to finish. That’s 3.1 million square feet of construction in that building, and then, of course, the landscaping and the work outside of the building.”
“On an average day out there [at the site], there are about 1,500 workers,” DeSalvio stated. “We are currently averaging about seven percent of the workforce is female on the job site.”
Distinguishing Encore’s layout from typical Las Vegas properties, DeSalvio noted that the gaming floor will be configured uniquely. “When you walk in to a lot of those places, you’re literally smack in the middle of the casino. What we did is put the casino more towards the back of the building, enabling guests to come in, go to the front desk, circulate within the room tower, go to the ballroom space, go to most of the restaurants – all without actually stepping foot in the gaming area,” he shared.
Hotel accommodations will span 650 square feet per room—significantly above the standard footprint. Among the 671 total rooms, 104 will function as suites.
The ballroom event space earned DeSalvio’s praise as “amazing.”
“We built one large ballroom that is 37,000 square feet – the second largest ballroom in Greater Boston – the only bigger one is at the BCEC,” DeSalvio explained. “There will be 13 restaurants in the building, there’s everything from steakhouse to fine dining Italian to casual Italian, to Chinese, to Asian fusion, to sports bar – we designed a really interesting and fun craft beer outlet to take advantage of so many of the great local breweries.”
Collaborating with restaurateurs Frank DiPasquale and Nick Varano alongside the Midnight Entertainment Group represents part of Encore’s strategy, DeSalvio noted, “which is Ed Kane and Randy Greenstein, and they are wonderful operators who will do the Asian fusion and the nightlife facility in the building.”
The current Encore workforce numbers 200 employees, DeSalvio stated. “and we have to get to about 5,000, so we have a little bit of hiring to do after the first of the year.”
Openings exist in IT, finance, public relations, marketing, and engineering sectors. “It’s all kinds of jobs, almost any job you can think of is in that building,” he added.
Questions from attendees turned toward building security measures during the Q&A portion.
“We are thinking long and hard about every aspect of the safety of that building,” DeSalvio responded. “We have 3,500 cameras in and around that facility, both inside and outside the building. We have the most sophisticated surveillance technology and we cover literally everything except bedrooms and bathrooms in that building, up to and including all the guest room hallways. I want people to know that when you step foot on that property, do me one favor: have a good time but behave. And that’s what we want people to do. We want them to come in and have a good time, but if there are bad actors, we are going to be all over that.”
Following his presentation, DeSalvio, a respected figure throughout hospitality and gaming circles, remained to engage further with the assembled local business community and officials.