Elkus Manfredi Architects provides design for proposed $1 billion Resort at Suffolk Downs

The owners of Suffolk Downs released plans for a $1 billion resort casino at the 77-year-old thoroughbred horse racing track. The proposal, to be known as "The Resort at Suffolk Downs," calls for a casino, two hotels, restaurants, retail shops, entertainment areas and racing on the 163-acre site. Suffolk Downs and its partner, Caesars Entertainment of Las Vegas, plan to bid for one of the three resort casino licenses under the state's new gambling law. Richard Fields, principal owner of the race track, said the facility would create "thousands of great-paying union jobs during construction and thousands more of not just jobs, but careers in the hospitality and gaming industries." Elkus Manfredi Architect is the project's lead architect. Under the proposal, a 300-room hotel would be built along with theater and nightclub venues, up to 10 restaurants, 200,000 s/f gambling space with up to 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games and a World Series of Poker room. Suffolk Downs owners pledged $40 million to improve local roads and intersections to ease traffic woes. They said the resort would employ more than 4,000 workers, The current Suffolk Downs grandstand would be "reinvented," said Manfredi, with casino gambling added there as well. Fields said the location would be a perfect site for the resort, near Logan Airport and downtown Boston. Officials of the track promised to spend $40 million to address traffic concerns in the neighborhood. Suffolk Downs will be competing for the sole resort casino license that the state Gaming Commission can award in Greater Boston and Central Massachusetts.