Before construction of the MGM Springfield resort casino in Western Massachusetts could even begin in March 2015, crews had their hands full setting the table for the $950-million mixed-use project. In one year, they relocated a homeless mission, moved a 400-ton historic church and planned for demolition of an old school and a 1970s car wash, among some 20 structures on the three-city-block site that needed to be demolished, restored or partially retained.
In summer 2015 alone, the project team spent three months building a 60-bed mission facility off site so its 30 residents could move before demolition of the Springfield Rescue Mission building “that was smack dab in the middle of the casino floor [location],” says Eric Nelson, project executive for general contractor AECOM Tishman.