Casino

The investment group seeking to build casinos in New Bedford and Western Massachusetts said yesterday it has added to the land it controls in Palmer, Mass.

The Northeast Group acquired development rights and an option to buy 20 acres adjacent to land it already controls near the Massachusetts Turnpike. Northeast now owns or controls 250 acres in Palmer that it could use for a resort casino development.

“In a project like this, more land is better,” said Paul Robbins, a Northeast spokesman.

The announcement comes as Republicans in the Massachusetts Senate say they’ll try to amend the state budget to legalize casino gambling when the Senate starts debate tomorrow on its proposed $28-billion spending plan for the Bay State.

Last October, Governor Patrick submitted legislation designed to bring three resort casinos to Massachusetts; the measure would give preference to a Massachusetts Indian tribe for one gambling license.

The legislation called for licensing three so-called destination casinos in different regions of Massachusetts, which the governor said would create $600 million in licensing fees, $400 million in annual tax revenues and 20,000 permanent jobs.

But the Massachusetts House of Representatives seemingly dealt Patrick’s plan a death blow in March when members voted to send the bill to a study committee, effectively defeating it and ensuring it could not come back up for debate until next year.

The Senate move may revive hope, however slim, among casino proponents that they still have a chance to capture some of the more than $1 billion that Bay Staters gamble away each year at casinos and slot parlors outside the state.

The Northeast Group, which includes Leon Dragone as one of its principals, is one of those proponents. Northeast owns, and has options to buy more, acreage in Palmer and New Bedford, both places it would seek to build a casino.

Northeast holds options on more than 35 acres in the city’s Hicks-Logan neighborhood along the New Bedford waterfront, just south of Route 195. The group also has an agreement with Pennsylvania Real Estate Trust, the company that owns the Dartmouth Mall, to develop the site.

Dragone’s company entered into an agreement with the Mohegan tribe, of Connecticut, to develop a casino in Palmer.

Among Dragone’s other partners in Northeast is Peter Picknelly, president of the Peter Pan Bus Co., the nation’s largest privately held bus company.

Picknelly joined the investment group in January, taking a minority stake, according to Robbins, the Northeast spokesman.

“He’s significant in that he’s a well-known New England business person,” Robbins said. “He and his family are really icons in Western Massachusetts.”

Another notable partner in Northeast is Steven Norton, a former president and chief operating officer of the Sands Hotel & Casino, in Las Vegas.

pgrimald@projo.com