April 03—The MGM Grand at Foxwoods is being renamed The Fox Tower, part of a campaign to reinvigorate the casino’s brand in the face of new and expanded gambling competition across the Northeast.
The change was announced Thursday by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns Foxwoods Resort Casino. The Fox Tower is a hotel with a lobby that has a casino, dining, shopping and entertainment.
“This transition is the first of many changes and development taking place at the resort,” Jason Guyot, vice president of Resort Operations, said in a statement. “We are proud to announce this new name as it speaks to the Tribe’s long and storied history as the ‘Fox People’ and reconfirms our commitment to what the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe created over 22 years ago.”
The change comes as MGM Resorts International prepares to build a casino in Springfield if it is given a license to do so by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Massachusetts is in the process of taking applications for resort casinos in two distinct regions: Greater Boston and Western Massachusetts. A third resort casino will be allowed in the southeastern part of the state. After several gambling institutions vied for the Western Massachusetts license, other competitors failed to get local approval from voters. MGM Resorts International is the only plan left in that region.
In October, MGM Resorts International and the Mashantucket Pequots ended their licensing agreement allowing Foxwoods to use the MGM name and the trademark logo of a lion’s head. The agreement dates back to 2006.
Foxwoods is doubling down on its Connecticut facility with new developments and promotions. Renovation is almost finished at another of the casino’s hotels, The Grand Pequot Tower. Foxwoods opened a new food court at Great Cedar Square and retail renovations are expected to finish up in July.
Foxwoods also started construction last fall on an 85-store outlet mall at the casino. The $120 million mall, named Tanger Outlet Mall at Foxwoods, is set to open May 2015. The outlet mall will focus on luxury brand and will be between the Grand Pequot Tower and The Fox Tower, formerly MGM Grand at Foxwoods.
The Northeast is becoming increasingly saturated with new or expanded gambling facilities.
“Continued expansion of gaming in the northeast U.S. has been particularly hard on Atlantic City and Connecticut, which have been losing patrons to eastern Pennsylvania and the Yonkers and Resorts World racinos operated in the New York City vicinity by Yonkers Racing Corporation and Genting Berhad, respectively,” Moody’s analyst Keith Foley wrote in an investors’ note in December.
Both the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority were dealt a blow when their separate applications to build casinos in Massachusetts were rejected in Milford and Palmer, respectively.
Mohegan Sun is now competing against Las Vegas casino titan Steve Wynn for the sole license to operate a casino in the Boston area.