Commission commends Plainridge Park Casino for exceeding diversity goals
- April 23, 2015
- by MGC Communications
- 0 comments
By Jill Lacey Griffin, Director of Workforce, Supplier and Diversity Development
As construction concludes in Plainville, MA and Plainridge Park Casino prepares to open its doors, I would like to commend project owner Penn National Gaming and their contractor Turner Construction for their strong commitment to diversity during the construction of their $225 million gaming facility. This commitment resulted in numerous vendor and supplier opportunities for Minority, Women and Veteran Owned businesses. In fact, the project owners exceeded their own diversity goals awarding contracts of about $27.6 million to Minority, Women and Veteran owned businesses (out of $82.2M total contracts awarded as of Dec. 31, 2014).
The Mass Gaming Commission works with our gaming licensees to implement the intent of the Expanded Gaming Law of promoting equity of economic opportunity during all phases of the development and operations of the casinos for minority, women and veteran owned businesses.
It is clear that Penn National Gaming executive’s strong leadership and consistent focus on their diversity goals throughout the construction period led to strong results. Plainridge Park Casino also worked closely with Mass Gaming Commission’s Vendor Advisory Group and other state resources it provided; including being represented on the external diversity committee for the project. Penn National Gaming has set the standard for other private sector gaming construction in Massachusetts; that the diversity goals are not the ceiling but the floor.
I look forward to hearing more about Penn National Gaming’s success strategies when they present to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission Public Meeting in the coming weeks.
The figures as of December 31, 2014 are;
Total amount of contracts awarded is 82.2M (as of Dec. 31, 2014)
MBE
Goal=3.3M
Actual=9.5M
WBE
Goal=5.8M
Actual=10.3M
VBE
Goal=2.5M
Actual=7.8M
