By Seth Daniel
Wynn Boston Harbor has announced it will unveil a new website and campaign called the ‘Mystic Mile’ ahead of planned, major road construction projects in Everett, Charlestown and Medford this summer.
President Bob DeSalvio told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) on Thursday, Feb. 16, at a regular meeting of the board that the company is preparing to engage in about $58 million in short-term road construction projects in Everett, Charlestown, Medford, Chelsea and Revere. The main thrust of that work, however, will be on Lower Broadway in Everett and on Sullivan Square in Charlestown – where $11 million of the total $58 million has been dedicated.
The work is required to be completed before the casino opens its doors in 2019, and DeSalvio said they expect the road work to start this summer – perhaps in July or August – and last for about one year.
“There’s going to have to be very close communication with the community all the way through our road work,” he said. “The real heavy lifting is at Sullivan Square and all the way up Lower Broadway, but there are some really big changes have to do at Santilli Circle, Sweetser Circle and Wellington Circle. We’ll have two really big efforts we’ll attack at once.”
AECCOM is handling all of the work except Sullivan Square, while Howard Stein Hudson is handling the Sullivan Square piece.
To make things simple, he said, they will roll out a new website and media/communications campaign called ‘Mystic Mile,’ which has been crafted by Charlestown resident Greg John, of Wynn Boston Harbor.
“We’re going to try to keep things very simple,” said DeSalvio. “In our particular case, if you look at the road in front of our property, it’s about one mile long and so we’re calling this the ‘Mystic Mile.’ It’s to address the roadwork on the Parkway and on Lower Broadway. We are designing a separate website to get traffic updates directly. People won’t have to go to Wynn Boston Harbor’s website and click on construction and go through all that…There will be a separate site called MysticMile.com dedicated to that.”
In addition to that, Wynn said they would have a media and communications plan as part of the Mystic Mile that would include road signs, local print media updates, LED signs, public meetings and e-mail/text alerts. There will also be a hotline set up for telephone communications and complaints.
As they expect things to change frequently during the one-year-long slate of project, they hope to have things updated with great frequency and ahead of time so people know what will happen and when.
One piece of the Mystic Mile campaign will feature signage on the worksites informing people about what is to come.
For example, one sign on a landscaping site reads, ‘We’re planting $36 million here.’ Another says, ‘Wait…For Great. It Will Be Worth It.’
DeSalvio said they wanted the Mystic Mile to not just inform people, but also to let them know that the inconvenience is quickly leading to something better.
“I think people want to know that something is coming if they’re going to be inconvenienced by traffic and roadwork construction,” he said.
He said the signage would be lighthearted, but would also get the point across that Wynn is improving the situation.
Commissioner Gayle Cameron said she particularly liked the signage aspect of the Mystic Mile plan.
“You are on track and on schedule and that’s good news,” she said. “I like the strategy of making signs so people aren’t aggravated any more than they already are with Boston traffic. So, I really like the messaging on the signs.”
The Mystic Mile rollout is expected to begin in the spring as Wynn Boston Harbor prepares to begin construction on the multiple roadwork sites.