Casino news from http://www.post-trib.com/
Casino operations are not just getting bigger in Northwest Indiana. They are now getting taller, too.
Parent company Boyd Gaming announced that its Michigan City casino, Blue Chip, will break ground in the spring on a $130 million hotel that will be 22 stories tall with 300 rooms. Completion is slated for late 2008.
By comparison, the existing hotel at Blue Chip offers 184 rooms in an eight-story building.
No building in Northwest Indiana comes even close to the height of the proposed hotel. The Twin Towers office complex at the Star Plaza in Merrillville is just seven stories tall.
Rob Stillwell, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming, said customer demand calls for the new hotel in the wake of the casino's recent $170 million expansion, which led to a new and bigger facility. The expansion elevated the casino brand and brought in a "lot of new faces," Stillwell said.
And now those new faces need a place to stay. "We have a hotel that is nearly full all the time," Stillwell said. "We're turning down several reservation inquiries every single week, every single day. ... (The new hotel) allows us to expand our overnight business and really that is where the greatest potential for growth is."
Stillwell said a substantial number of local construction workers will be employed in the building stages.
Michigan City Mayor Chuck Oberlie said the city is prepared for an influx of traffic and welcomes it.
"It will invite people in for more than one day and one night to bring the family to do some shopping and enjoy the lakefront," Oberlie said.
The still-unnamed hotel, whose design is under wraps until construction time, will offer lake views and include a fitness and spa facility, convention space, show space and more dining and nightlife options.
It ups the ante in the ever-increasing casino expansion wars that have hit the area. Work already has begun on a new $485 million casino facility for Horseshoe Hammond, which will include one floor of gaming and an entertainment center on the second floor.
And Blue Chip will face stiff competition from the new Four Winds casino, which will be only a few minutes away in New Buffalo, Mich.
The land-based facility, a Pokagon brand casino of the Potawatomi American Indians, is slated to open in August 2007 and will boast 137,000 square feet of gaming space, six restaurants and a 160-room suite hotel in a North Woods atmosphere. The facility is situated on 675 acres, meaning there's plenty of room for expansion.
Tom Shields, spokesman for Four Winds casino, speculates that the Blue Chip hotel is being built in the wake of Four Winds. He isn't concerned about the competition, saying that land-based casinos historically do better than riverboat casino facilities like Blue Chip.
"We feel very comfortable and confident that the Four Winds casino will be the most exciting entertainment opportunity in the area for casino gaming," Shields said.
Ron Koziol, a Midwest gaming consultant, said Blue Chip will face some stiff competition from Four Winds, but the new hotel will certainly help.
"Native American casinos have a reputation of building beautiful casinos and adding new amenities and adding new things to attract a gambler ...," Koziol said. "(Blue Chip) should have something like that (hotel) to be able to compete."
Stillwell and Koziol agree that the gaming market in Northwest Indiana is on the upswing, and all the expansion and competition will bring greater attention, and more money, to the area.
Joseph DeRosa, senior vice president and general manager of Resorts East Chicago, welcomes the new Blue Chip hotel, even though his resort has no major renovations to announce -- yet.
"I still stand by the attitude that a rising tide brings up all the boats," DeRosa said. "I'm very excited about any and all development in the area because it brings more people to the state. ... But at the end of the day, the competitive edge is given to the property with the best service more so than to a particular facility."
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