In Massachusetts and a row is reportedly brewing between Wynn Resorts Limited and sub-contractors who claim to be owed tens of millions of dollars connected with helping to construct its recently-opened Encore Boston Harbor integrated casino resort.

Voluptuous venue:

According to a Wednesday report from the Boston Herald newspaper, the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor began welcoming guests last Sunday following over three years of work that involved some 7,000 construction workers. The property located in the northern Boston suburb of Everett features a 671-room hotel alongside restaurants, meeting and convention spaces, retail outlets and a three million square foot casino.

Additional work:

But, Sue Mailman, from local firm, Coghlin Electrical Contractors, reportedly told the newspaper that her company is still owed around $30 million after carrying out several ‘change orders’ on the Massachusetts facility. These endeavors purportedly involve work that has been added to the original scope of an agreed contract at a later date with sub-contractors normally billing for these changes at the end of every month.

Mailman reportedly told the Boston Herald…

“There’s a process that usually happens to evaluate the changes every month between the sub-contractors and the owner so that we’re allowed to bill for all the change that is happening. We were told specifically to do the work we were assigned and then ordered to do extra work. A lot of that piled up at the end and we have not been paid for a lot of the changes that happened.”

Preventable interest:

The Boston Herald reported that a second local firm, ML McDonald, is claiming to be owed over $4 million after it carried out ‘finishing services’ on the 33-acre Encore Boston Harbor, which incorporated fire-proofing work as well as the painting of the venue’s casino and restaurants. The owner of this company, Peter Townsend, purportedly declared that this situation has led to him ‘paying interest to the bank’ instead of using this cash to run and grow his business.

Townsend said…

“We’re on a line of credit with the bank and had to borrow money to finance the work we did with Encore [Boston Harbor].  We pay our workers weekly and vendors monthly. I’m [owed] north of $4 million and others are way past that and Wynn [Resorts Limited] will want to negotiate a haircut and that becomes a business decision. Everyone who worked at Encore [Boston Harbor] is on the same boat.”

Pleading innocence:

For its part, Las Vegas-headquartered Wynn Resorts Limited reportedly responded to these allegations by stating that it had met all of its financial obligations in building the giant Middlesex County venue by paying every one of the invoices submitted by its main Encore Boston Harbor contractor, Suffolk Construction.

Wynn Resorts made the following statement…

“Encore Boston Harbor has paid all invoices presented by our contractor, Suffolk Construction. Sub-contractors work directly with the contractor not Encore Boston Harbor. Encore Boston Harbor has no outstanding invoices with Suffolk Construction. The relationship between Wynn Resorts [Limited] and Suffolk [Construction] has always been cordial and professional.”

Contractor confidence:

Suffolk Construction spokesperson, Dan Antonellis, proclaimed that the contractor is continuing ‘to work directly with its sub-contractors to resolve any outstanding legitimate issues’ and remains confident that the firm will be able to ‘achieve satisfactory conclusions to close out a successful project.’