ipmuc Indian leaders intent on opening a world-class gambling casino are negotiating to purchase property along a stretch of Interstate 84 in Sturbridge and Union, Conn., according to a tribal leader.
If the real estate deal goes through and the Nipmucs go on to win various government approvals, a casino that could rival Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun will rise out of the rolling hills at the very doorstep of Massachusetts - or possibly within the state.
The site has obvious commercial and political advantages. Closer to Boston than New England's two other Indian-operated casinos, the Sturbridge/Union site is also easily accessible to potential customers traveling by major highways from Worcester, Hartford, and Springfield.
And since the 300-acre parcel straddles the Massachusetts-Connecticut line on the eastern side of the highway, the Nipmucs may be able to gain political concessions by playing one state's economic interests against the other's.
''It's a beautiful piece of land,'' said Ray Pontbriand, whose family has owned the property on the Sturbridge side of the border for many years. ''It's prime for development.''
One tribal council member said he was taken on a tour of the property this spring by Guy Conrad, the tribe's economic development adviser.
The council member, who asked for anonymity, said Conrad wants no publicity concerning the casino plans, pointing out, for example, that the council's former chairman, Bill Gould Sr., was stripped of his post in March for acknowledging the Nipmucs' interest in opening a casino.
The council member said he wanted to disclose the tribe's plans because he opposes the tight control over tribal affairs exercised by Conrad, a non-Indian who stands to profit handsomely along with the non-Indian financial backers of the tribe.
Conrad, a former public relations executive in Boston, did not return repeated calls seeking comment. Walter Vickers, chief of the Nipmucs, declined comment. Among the several other councilors contacted, one acknowledged the tribe's interest in land in Sturbridge and Union.
Pontbriand confirmed his family's ongoing negotiations to sell the land along I-84, but said he did not know the identity of the prospective purchaser.
Pontbriand said all his dealings have been with broker Alan Neelans, who has insisted on keeping his client's identity confidential.
''It's being handled very quietly,'' Pontbriand said. ''I put a little bit of pressure on the broker to tell me what's planned, but he told me: `I just can't tell you. The client wants it that way.'''
Neelans, of Comvest Realty of Northborough, said even he does not know the client's identity. He said he was hired by an out-of-state development corporation to find a parcel of at least 200 acres somewhere in New England. He said that the development corporation was acting on behalf of an unidentified client, but that he did not know anything beyond that.
Ermen Pallanck, owner of 60 acres of property contiguous to Pontbriand's on the Connecticut side, declined comment. ''I have no answers to your questions,'' he said before hanging up.
The Nipmuc tribal council member said he was told that an option to buy at least some portion of the property was purchased on behalf of the tribe. Pontbriand, Neelans, and Pallanck all declined comment on whether any money had already changed hands.
The Nipmuc tribal council member also said the tribe was interested in a parcel of land in Plainfield, Conn., several miles off Interstate 395. Thomas Bellavance, whose family has had a 300-acre parcel for sale for several years, said he has had no contact with the tribe. However, Bellavance said he mailed a letter to hundreds of prospective buyers earlier this year, including several Indian tribes.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs granted preliminary federal recognition to the Nipmucs in January, meaning they have already negotiated the most difficult turn in the long regulatory process for opening a casino.
Under federal law, the right to operate a casino - and with it the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in profits - is reserved for tribes in continuous existence as distinct political and social communities since first contact with Europeans centuries ago.
Since Foxwoods first proved the explosive profitability of such casinos, however, many groups - in partnership with their non-Indian financial backers - have asserted status as tribes and sought federal recognition, particularly in the East, where nearby population centers virtually guarantee financial success.
But professional genealogists and historians working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been quick to reject many such assertions. They say the law requires rejection of groups whose ancestors, while clearly of Native American lineage, nevertheless did not belong to a tribe in the strict sense of a distinct and continuous political and social unit.
The Nipmucs' application for recognition was rejected for just that reason last year, but that decision was overturned in January in a controversial ruling by a ranking political appointee acting in the waning hours of the Clinton administration.
That appointee, Michael J. Anderson, went on to a lucrative job lobbying on behalf of Indian gaming tribes upon serving out his term at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Nipmucs, whose ancestors lived in Central Massachusetts and northeast Connecticut, now are awaiting final approval of recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has never denied final recognition to a tribe that has gained preliminary recognition.
Since Connecticut is already home to two Indian-operated casinos, winning the necessary state approvals to open a casino on that side of the border appears certain. Massachusetts, by contrast, has never approved a casino, even though the already federally recognized Wampanoag tribe of Aquinnah has sought such approvals for a decade in Fall River and other places.
Massachusetts officials, however, might be pushed into approving a casino for the Nipmucs in Sturbridge, if the alternative is to have the casino on the state's doorstep, with all its negative impacts, such as traffic, but without its chief potential advantage: a share of casino revenues flowing into the state treasury.
Connecticut currently uses the $320 million it collects annually from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun to fund education and other state programs.
Sean P. Murphy can be reached by e- mail at [email protected].
