Casino news from http://www.heraldbusinessjournal.com/
Construction began in August on the Tulalip Tribes’ long-awaited $130 million, 12-story, 363-room resort hotel and conference center adjacent to the giant Tulalip Casino in Quil Ceda Village.
Due to open by early 2008 as a major new tourism and business attraction, the additional facilities will be part of the Tulalip Resort Casino, the “resort” part being new to the marketing materials the tribes already are distributing.
The hotel and conference center, with 400 new employees, also is expected to be a catalyst for other Snohomish County development and a magnet for tens of thousands of visitors attending Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic games in British Columbia.
Ken Kettler, the resort’s new president and chief operating officer, said the hotel, spa, pool, two restaurants, two cocktail lounges — all decorated with Native American-style artwork and decor — will be “the anchor that really sets us apart in this area.”
A significant part of the new facility also will include the Tulalips’ long-awaited tribal cultural center, which is expected to be a major tourist attraction on its own.
Coming here from California, where he had helped to open a casino-linked hotel on another Indian reservation, Kettler said he believes the quality of the expanded Tulalip Casino facility will distinguish it in the marketplace.
“Before California, I worked for Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe for many years. I know what quality is like and what attracts people,” he said, adding that the Tulalip complex will be a lavish one designed to compete with Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., and Vancouver, British Columbia, attractions.
The hotel and conference center — designed by Ruhl-Parr & Associates, Architects, of Bellevue and styled by Interior Design International of Seattle, the same companies who were involved in the design of the Tulalip Casino — will be built by PCL Construction, a Canadian firm with offices throughout the United States, including Bellevue.
Brett L. Magnan, who has more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, is the new executive vice president of the Tulalip Hotel operations, reporting to Kettler.
Designed to be a four-star, four-diamond hotel, the conference center in the complex will be large enough to serve banquets for as many as 800 people, about the same size as the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at the Everett Events Center.
One of the luxury features for the hotel will be its larger rooms, each one at least 500 square feet, compared to 225 square feet at Honolulu’s ResortQuest Waikiki Beach hotel, for instance. The hotel and conference center together will cover 114,582 square feet at the Quil Ceda Village site of the present casino, with the hotel tower alone accounting for 26,666 square feet of that space.
Additional slot machines will be added, too, many of them in the hotel lobby and conference center area, as well as in the casino. The expansion will include 106 additional gaming slot machines, plus 56 “high limit” gaming slots and six more “high limit” gaming tables.
Banquet rooms will provide 14,799 square feet of space, with meeting rooms of around 5,660 square feet. Additional gaming areas will amount to 5,709 square feet, with 2,898 square feet in the new “high limits” gaming area of the center. The large oasis pool and reception area will cover 7,698 square feet, with 34,203 square feet devoted to the “back of the house” area for administrative facilities, kitchen, service areas, housekeeping and other needs.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the hotel and conference center Aug. 2 featured comments by each member of the board of directors, traditional tribal dance ceremonies by Tulalip members, Chairman Stan Jones Sr.’s blessing of the event in the traditional Lushootseed language of the tribes and congratulatory comments by Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, and other dignitaries. The ceremony was followed by a salmon luncheon prepared by the Tulalips for the several hundred invited guests at the event.
“The building of the hotel will have a ripple effect on the local economy,” said Melvin Sheldon Jr., vice chairman of the Tulalip Tribes’ board of directors.
“This is the tribes’ golden era,” he said, noting that the development of Quil Ceda Village, the Tulalip Casino and other projects has dramatically changed life for tribal members.
Sheldon, Chairman Jones and Treasurer Chuck James joined in comments at the event about the value of Quil Ceda Village, the casino and other developments that have benefited tribal members with jobs and new education opportunities.
There are more tribal members graduating from high school — 52 this year, a new record — and more completing college than ever before, Sheldon said, and the tribes’ stronger economy has allowed creation of health clinics, technology development, jobs and environmental improvements to the area.
James, former manager of the Tulalip Casino, called the gambling venue the “cash cow” that has made the hotel and conference center possible, noting that this project is “the next step for our tribe,” but even more projects are yet to come.
“It isn’t the end to what we’re doing,” he said, noting that there already is talk of a second hotel tower as the economy grows.
State Rep. John McCoy, who also is general manager of Quil Ceda Village, said the tribal museum, a new tribal administration building, a recreational vehicle park and some type of new entertainment venue are all in the works. One of the more immediate projects will be construction of an administration building for housing some 400 employees who work for the tribes, consolidating offices that are scattered all over the reservation in various buildings.
Tribal officials also noted that a major expansion of the 100- store Seattle Premium Outlet Mall in Quil Ceda Village is being negotiated with outlet mall owners, focusing on discussions that could bring as many as 50 more stores to the popular site.
The Tulalip Tribes also are working with the Washington state Department of Transportation to solve the growing traffic congestion problems around the site, particularly the 116th Street NE overpass at I-5. Plans call for the bridge to be widened from three to six lanes by September 2008, with work beginning in early 2007.
Already, on their own, the tribes have begun building a new route for 34th Avenue NE, which parallels I-5, to move it away from the 116th Street overpass to reduce congestion at that intersection. The new road will turn west to connect with the entrance to Quil Ceda Village as well as 116th Street NE.
Along with construction of the Tulalip Tribes’ new hotel, improving occupancy rates at county lodging facilities are encouraging interest in adding more rooms.
In Marysville, the developer that built south Everett’s Holiday Inn Express in 2004 has a Holiday Inn Express under construction at 88th Street NE and I-5.
Also, developers have proposed at least one new hotel, tentatively a Hilton Garden Inn, for the area near Lynnwood’s convention center, according to the city of Lynnwood. Last year, two hotels opened for business, the all-new Hilton Garden Inn at Paine Field, adjacent to the Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour facility, and the revamped, re-branded Holiday Inn near downtown Everett.
The new hotel projects follow a banner year for the county’s hospitality businesses. Smith Travel Research Inc. reported that an average of 67.3 percent of the county’s rooms were occupied overnight last year, compared with 60.3 percent in 2004.
“Because Snohomish County had so much growth in 2005, it doesn’t surprise me we’ve had interest in building new rooms,” said Amy Spain, executive director of the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau.
Although new rooms coming online always affect occupancy rates, Spain said the new Tulalip hotel and the one proposed across the street from the Lynnwood Convention Center may attract previously untapped business from larger meeting and convention groups.
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