SEIGMA’s real estate study—conducted by Dr. Henry Renski from the UMass Center for Economic Development and Thomas Peake, Senior Research Analyst from the UMass Donahue Institute— examines the initial impacts of the Plainridge Park Casino on the residential, commercial, and industrial real estate markets in Plainville and its surrounding communities. This report follows the Baseline Real Estate Conditions, Host Community Profile: Plainville report that documented real estate trends prior to the opening of Plainridge Park Casino.
The purpose of this study is to document any notable changes to Plainville and its surrounding communities’ real estate markets following the awarding of a slots gaming license to the Plainridge Racecourse in February 2014 and the subsequent opening of the expanded facility in June of 2015.
Although the research team controlled for other factors in an effort to isolate the impacts of Plainridge Park Casino on real estate markets, it is inherently difficult to tease out the impacts of a single development from other events. While we did observe a certain amount of growth in the real estate market, that growth is consistent with the trend observed in Massachusetts as a whole. Ultimately, there is no evidence to suggest that the development of Plainridge Park Casino had any clear impact on the real estate market in Plainville or its surrounding communities.
Plainridge Park Casino is unique among Massachusetts gaming license holders in that it was built on the site of an existing gaming facility, in this case a harness racing track. The fact that the facility did not occupy vacant real estate or displace existing organizations limited the impact that the facility could have on the local real estate market. It is likely that the casinos in Springfield and Everett will have more significant real estate impacts. Future reports will continue to monitor real estate conditions in Plainville and examine the effects of larger casino developments—i.e., MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor—on real estate markets in their respective host and surrounding communities.
Read the full report here
