Kraft Group

Kraft Group Bought Land Near Gillette Stadium Prior To Nixing Casino Plan

Published May 18, 2012

Two weeks before Patriots Owner Robert Kraft “abandoned a plan to build" a casino in Foxboro, the Kraft Group paid $1.18M "for a parcel of land adjacent" to the site where the casino would have been built, according to Michele Morgan Bolton of the BOSTON GLOBE. The Kraft Group’s purchase of the 4.9-acre plot of land, "caught local officials by surprise when it was disclosed this week.” The officials speculated that the “additional land would make the Kraft Group’s holdings around Gillette Stadium more attractive for development.” An adjacent 200-acre Kraft parcel “was initially slated for a biotechnology park, and then for the casino.” The property, and other nearby areas including Foxboro Center, are the "focus of a new town masterplan that is in development.” South Walpole, Mass., resident Mike McCarthy, whose land “directly abuts the much larger Kraft parcel, was one of several leaders of his town’s fight against the casino proposed for the land.” But McCarthy said that "it is time to move on.” McCarthy: “I don’t see them as the Evil Empire. If the casino was still alive this would be a big issue. But as long as they do what is permitted in the town, and are sensitive to the neighborhood, they have a right to do what they want with their land’’ (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/18).

NO PARKING: The BOSTON GLOBE’s Bolton writes, "The end of the road has come for a time-honored, but illegal, tradition in neighborhoods" near Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, "where homeowners looking to make a quick buck have charged fans attending games and other large public events to park on their lawns and driveways.” At a Boston town meeting on Monday voters “narrowly agreed by a count of 73 votes to 50 votes to discontinue the practice and charge a $100 fine per vehicle, per day for violators” (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/18).