Prospective Newport Grand owners not eyeing move

The prospective owners of Newport Grand say the 39-year-old slot parlor may not look like much from the outside, but it has good bones.
So if city and state voters allow table games at the former jai alai fronton in the City by the Sea, the trio of prominent developers who’ve agreed to buy the facility promise not to tear it down but instead invest $40 million in improving it.
“We would not be interested if the inside infrastructure were not very good,” said Joseph R. Paolino Jr., one of three partners who have reached an agreement to buy Newport Grand on the condition expanded gaming is allowed. “We are very committed to keeping [Newport Grand] at only this location.”
That promise to keep Newport gambling where it is, in the warehouse-like building at the foot of the Pell Bridge, and not try to move it elsewhere in the city, such as the downtown waterfront, is central to the new pitch for table games at Newport Grand.
Joined by British businessman Peter de Savary and Boston developer Paul Roiff, Paolino, the former Providence mayor and owner of numerous buildings in that city, said the group is willing to tie any new table-games license to the current location exclusively.
And Newport political observers say, if that message gets through, it could make the difference between this attempt at expanding Newport Grand and the bid killed by local voters two years ago.
“Although there are people philosophically opposed to gambling in any form, that was not the group who defeated table games two years ago,” said Newport Mayor Henry F. Winthrop. “It was defeated by the people who thought it would change hands and be moved to the waterfront. What is being proposed now would say it can only be located at the present location. I believe that makes a significant difference.”
To operate table games, such as blackjack and roulette, Newport Grand needs an endorsement by the City Council and then a bill passed by the General Assembly to seek permission in a statewide November referendum. In that referendum, a majority of both Rhode Island voters and Newport voters have to vote yes for it to become law.
In 2012, a Newport Grand campaign for table games led by current owner Diane Hurley made it on the ballot and was passed by two-thirds of state voters, only to be defeated in Newport balloting by roughly 500 votes. Winthrop said he has been in contact with the prospective Newport ownership group and expects to take the matter up with the Council May 29.
“We already have gambling in Newport – it is just a question of what form it is in,” Winthrop said. “I am not sure table games are better or worse than slot machines.”
Newport County Chamber of Commerce President Jody Sullivan said the fact that the Paolino partnership has produced specific expansion plans with architectural drawings should reassure voters.
“Previously there was never a specific plan for what would be there and what it would look like,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the Chamber would not take an official position on the table games question.
Even if questions about Newport Grand moving subside this time around, a vote to expand the facility won’t go unchallenged.
The group Citizens Concerned about Casino Gambling has again vowed to fight the proposal.
A consistent message from both Hurley and the Paolino group is that without table games Newport Grand is in trouble.
Net slot machine revenue at the parlor has fallen from $79.5 million in fiscal 2005 to $48.1 million in fiscal 2013, according to figures from the R.I. Lottery.
Newport Grand splits a portion of that revenue with the city, which has budgeted $400,000 for fiscal 2015 and the state, which is budgeting $24.5 million from the facility next year, down $1.9 million from the current budget.
With table games operating at Twin River in Lincoln, a new slot parlor approved for Plainville, Mass., and a casino planned just off Route 24 in Fall River, Newport Grand’s current business model does not look promising. “At one time there were 220 people working at Newport Grand and now there are 160 people with their hours cut back,” Paolino said. “We want to get back to 220 and then add even more employees with table games.”
To get there, the new owners would build a new neoclassical façade, front entryway and side additions around the existing 116,000-square-foot building.
The new additions would allow Newport Grand to add a day spa, restaurant and more entertainment, among other things, Paolino said. •

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