Stairways to gaming heaven:
The glittering lobby of
California’s Pechanga Resort & Casino
As most
mammoths do, the Native American casino industry started
small, but its growth has been swift and imposing. According to the
National Indian Gaming Association in Washington, D.C. (www.indiangaming.org), more than 400 tribal casinos
are in the game today, with more on the way, and many have enough
glitz, function space and cultural character to rival their
competitors in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Following is a rundown
of the latest expansions, openings and proposals.
California
Somewhere along the way, the gaming glut just outside Palm Springs,
with its rows of stodgy, dim casinos, gained a reputation as a
magnet for the blue-haired and red-eyed. The $250 million
Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa summarily
shattered the stigma, however, when it opened this past December,
courtesy of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Between its
petal-strewn canopy at the resort’s entrance and the glass
penthouse lounge atop the 27-story hotel tower, the Morongo offers
310 hip, elegant rooms, 12,000 square feet of meeting space and,
for a sense of place, Sage, a luxury spa named for the namesake
reservation’s ubiquitous indigenous plant.
Nearby, Indio’s Fantasy Springs Resort Casino
didn’t always have “Resort” in its name. A new sense of entitlement
set in, however, when the Carazon Band of Mission Indians unveiled
a $200 million supersizing this January. Additions include a
250-room, 12-story hotel tower, two new restaurants and a poolside
bar. The redesigned gaming area now claims an extra 15,000 square
feet. And to leave the meeting-planner set salivating, the Carazon
Band installed a 100,000-square-foot event center offering a
44,460-square-foot exhibit hall, a 3,400-square-foot ballroom and
eight meeting rooms.
In San Diego, the Pauma Band of Mission Indians scrapped their
plans for a Caesars Pauma, opting instead for a $300 million
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The management
contract is still pending approval by the National Indian Gaming
Commission, but Pauma tribe and Hard Rock spokespersons are
predicting a grand opening by the end of 2006, with 300 hotel
rooms, 100 gaming tables, 2,000 slot machines, a concert venue,
multiple restaurants, a spa and as yet undetermined meeting
space.
Fifty miles north in Temecula, the Pechanga Resort
& Casino, operated by the Pechanga Band of Luiseno
Indians, wrapped up a $252 million, 400,000-square-foot expansion
this December. The gaming area now sprawls across 188,000 square
feet (much of it newly smoke-free). Other recent additions to the
522-room property include restaurants, a nightclub and, in a smart
nod to the burgeoning trend of the moment, a 54-table poker room.
As before, the venue offers 40,000 square feet of meeting
space.
Connecticut
This state’s two main gaming powers have been dueling in a
perennial game of one-upmanship, to the delight of spoils-minded
planners.
First, Uncasville’s Mohegan Sun, a 1,200-room,
240-acre gaming giant run by the Mohegan tribe and featuring
100,000 square feet of meeting space and 30 restaurants, announced
it would be putting another $6 million into its 31st eatery, Uncas
American Grill, opening this summer. Capitalizing on its famous
Mohegan-centric interiors, the property also launched a new audio
walking tour for curious guests who can easily get lost in the
decorative whirl.
Not to be outdone, Mashantucket’s Foxwoods Resort
Casino, operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation,
left the industry twittering for months after announcing plans for
a $700 million expansion, expected to bring in an 825-room hotel
tower and spa, a new casino and 145,000 square feet of additional
meeting space (the resort currently offers 55,000 square
feet).
Across the street, the 900-acre Lake of Isles golf complex,
also owned by the Mashantucket tribe, unveiled two new Reese
Jones-designed golf courses in April and May, and a new golf
academy opens this month.
Meanwhile, although Mohegan Sun’s $1 billion Project Sunburst
expansion was completed just three years ago, rumors already are
circulating about the casino’s inevitable, and expensive, rebuttal.
Mohegan Sun reps are mum so far.
Kansas
The trend of off-reservation building has been mounting steadily
across the United States, as has the controversy surrounding it.
Kansas got embroiled last year, when the Iowa tribe of Kansas and
Nebraska proposed a $270 million casino in Park City, just outside
of Wichita and hundreds of miles from its base. At press time,
preliminary negotiations with the state’s Governor Kathleen
Sebelius were still in early phases, but the Park City makeover is
far from impossible. Features would include a 300-room hotel, a
40,000-square-foot convention center and a 2,500-seat special-
events facility.
Further along in negotiations are the Kickapoo Tribe and Sac
and Fox Nation, who’ve already signed a pact with the governor for
a $210 million development in Wyandotte County. Once the local
legislature approves, the project will provide a 250-room hotel,
80,000 square feet of gaming space, restaurants, a spa and a
concert hall. The two tribes also have just proposed a three-way
collaboration with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation on an equally
hefty casino project in Kansas’ southeastern area.
Harrah’s Prairie Band, co-owned by Harrah’s
and the Potawatomi tribe, unveiled a $55 million expansion last
August. Touch-ups include a 12,000-square-foot convention center, a
lush, new central courtyard and a hotel room count that’s ballooned
from 100 to 297.
Beam me up:
The growing grandeur
of the Mystic Lake
Casino Hotel
Minnesota
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake hauls out a
slew of expansions this year to the Mystic Lake Casino
Hotel. The Twin Cities property, just 25 minutes south of
the Mall of America, is already big enough to rub Mall shoulders
confidently, claiming to offer the largest buffet-style restaurant
in the Midwest (as well as three other similarly abundant
eateries). Not content to rest on its laurels, however, the
heretofore 416-room property welcomes 170 new rooms this month. In
the summer of next year, the property will offer a new 18-hole,
par-72 golf course, and next January, a new 3,000-square-foot
events center will join the property’s 19,248 square feet of
meeting space.
In Red Wing, on the banks of the Mississippi River, the Prairie
Island Indian Community’s Treasure Island Resort &
Casino spent $4.8 million last summer on renovating the
giddily tropical grounds. The post-makeover lobby’s Argentinean
granite flooring spreads a giant traveler’s map underfoot, and even
the hotel corridors bear similarly escapist carpeting. All 250
guest rooms have been repainted and refurnished to resemble the
namesake novel’s more luxurious tropical settings. For a touch of
realism, the property offers 25,000 square feet of meeting
space.
New Mexico
Just outside of Albuquerque, the Sandia Resort &
Casino, set against the Sandia Mountains, provides welcome
respite from the windowless underworld of casino life. This fall,
the property adds a 228-room hotel; a 35,000-square-foot meetings
and events center; a separate 5,000-seat amphitheater; a
12,000-square-foot spa; a swimming pool complete with wet bar; four
restaurants, including the rooftop Bien Shur, and a Scott
Miller-designed 18-hole championship golf course.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s Inn of the Mountain Gods
Resort & Casino opened this past March, minutes
outside of Ruidoso. With a cost of $200 million, the well-heeled
property carries all the outdoorsy majesty a name like Inn of the
Mountain Gods demands. Aside from a luxurious, 273-room lakeside
hotel and a 38,000-square-foot casino, offerings include a Ted
Robinson-designed 18-hole mountain golf course, 55 hiking trails
and 11 lifts linked with nearby Ski Apache. Between eco-adventures,
attendees can enjoy 40,000 square feet of meeting space.
New York
Governor George Pataki backed a plan earlier this year that would
bring a whopping five tribal casinos to the Catskills over the next
several years. At press time, however, after a Supreme Court ruling
complicated the five-casino plan beyond recognition,
representatives for the governor said only one likely would break
ground. Expect the sole survivor to be the Mohawk Mountain
Casino Resort, a $600 million, 174-acre property with a
750-room hotel, 160,000 square feet of gaming space and 15,000
square feet for meetings.
Expanding casinos include the Oneida Indian Nation’s
Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona. Last
April, the property opened the 98-suite Lodge at Turning Stone,
bearing the architectural stamp of vintage Frank Lloyd Wright, but
coupling more rustic Adirondack elements with modern chic. Boosting
the accommodations count further is the 287-room, 19-story Tower at
Turning Stone, opened last October with a 5,000-seat event center
that brought the property’s function space tally to more than
100,000 square feet. Eight more restaurants are expected to arrive
this year, bringing the total to 22. In addition, at press time,
the start of construction of a stand-alone destination spa was
imminent.
In Niagara Falls, the two-year-old Seneca Niagara
Casino is about to make the leap from a successful casino
to a valuable meetings destination. This December marks the grand
opening of its $200 million, 600-room hotel, promised to be a
luxury property and set to offer 30,000 square feet of meeting
space, as well as a spa and a full array of restaurants and retail.
And with two more hotels expected within the next six years (one
with 450 rooms, one with 800), the Seneca Nation’s casino should be
one to watch.