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The Gila River Indian Community is relocating its largest casino right next to Interstate 10 and plans to turn it into a "casino resort" with a 250-room hotel, 2,300-seat entertainment hall and a parking garage.
In its new location, the Wild Horse Pass Casino will remain about a mile south of Ahwatukee Foothills. But it will give Ahwatukee another nearby resort hotel and a place for meetings and conventions, as well as a closer site for Las Vegas-style entertainers.
The $150 million casino resort is scheduled to open in summer 2008 and will include a 100,000-square foot gaming floor, a 10-story hotel, entertainment venue, conference facilities, pool, spa and health club, stores, nightclub, multiple restaurants, a lounge and food court, tribal officials said.
There are also plans for some type of retail on the north side.
The casino resort will be northwest of I-10 and Wild Horse Pass Boulevard, just north of Firebird Lake. Maricopa Road will be extended north of Wild Horse Pass Boulevard and will become the entrance to the new resort.
Construction will begin next spring.
Gila River community officials haven't decided what to do with the current Wild Horse Pass Casino building, a low, rust-colored facility that is 8 1/2 years old.
The Gila River community's three casinos, which have a total of 1,875 gaming devices, draw 4.5 million to 5 million visitors a year, said Harold Baugus Jr., chief executive officer of the Gila River Gaming Enterprises Inc.
Consultants have advised the community that by moving the Wild Horse Pass casino, which has 750 gaming devices, about a mile east next to the freeway, attendance could increase by 15 percent to 20 percent, Baugus said.
"It will be right next to one of the busiest freeways in America," Baugus said. "And since the demographics are primarily local, that is extremely crucial."
Don Antone, vice chairman of the Gila River Casino Expansion Owners Team and a former Gila River governor, said the community has outgrown its current Wild Horse Pass casino. It doesn't have enough room for food and beverage operations, nor for entertainers.
"When we do it (have entertainment) now, we have to move things out. We have to move out the bingo hall," he said.
Dale Gutenson, executive director of the casino team, said a hotel was added because consultants have said it will complement and drive more business to the casino. He also said another hotel is needed anyway. The community's other hotel is a 500-room, high-end resort.
The community also will have to move a second casino in 2008 because of a state restriction prohibiting Indian casinos from being within a mile and a half from each other. Lone Butte Casino, just south of west Chandler, is too close to the new Wild Horse Pass site.
The community plans to announce a new location for Lone Butte within a month, Antone said.
Indian communities are restricted on the number of gaming devices they can have according to their population, under terms of compacts between Arizona and the tribes.
The Gila River community expects to be allowed more devices and is planning its new casino to have room for expansion.
The $150 million project is the community's latest effort to stay competitive in the lucrative gaming business. Last November the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation near Fountain Hills opened a 247-room Radisson Resort next to its casino.
The Arizona Department of Gaming last week announced that tribal gaming contributions to the state grew 17 percent in the last quarter, suggesting that gaming revenue continues to grow.
Arizona tribes with casinos are required to contribute 1 percent to 8 percent of their net winnings to programs that benefit people in Arizona, such as schools, wildlife conservation and tourism.
The amount tribes contribute is a sliding scale that varies according to how much they earn. Those contributions reached $25.5 million last quarter.
But department spokeswoman Seena Simon said that only indicates that the tribes' net winnings are up and doesn't account for expenses. She declined to say whether revenue has gone up or how the Gila River Indian Community is doing financially.
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