Casinos Expand to Provide High-end Entertainment and Luxury

By Amy Davis

Casino Snoqualmie

The Snoqualmie Tribe recently completed construction on its $375 million, 160,000 sq ft Casino Snoqualmie in North Bend, Wash., and celebrated with a grand opening that featured Jessica Simpson in a headline act. The opening “nearly shut down I-90,” says Dave Harrison, vice president at Skanska USA of Seattle, the general contractor for the project.

Casino Snoqualmie features five restaurants, 1,700 slot machines and a variety of table games and poker tables. The casino is designed in a Northwest lodge style with open-timber frame construction inside and includes a six-story parking garage. It was designed by Bergman, Walls & Associates of Las Vegas.

The exterior was the biggest issue, says Leonard Bergman, a partner and senior project manager at Bergman, Walls. The building had to be noncombustible, so wood finishes were not possible on the exterior, he says.

However, the tribe wanted the look and feel of a Northwest timber lodge, and so “we created a product,” Bergman adds. “It’s basically a foam system with modified stucco on it.” Bergman says that while the project was not aiming for LEED certification, the participants did keep “green” in mind. As one example, Bergman says the project did not call for any “tropical woods that weren’t available through sustainable harvest. We minimized the use of wood, except for wood finishes. The project is made almost completely of concrete and steel.

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Harrison says “the end of the job was a crunch” because there were delays with some materials orders, especially on specialty items. “We worked seven days a week with two shifts to mitigate delays,” he adds. Bergman, who has worked on other casino projects, including high-end Las Vegas casinos, said that Casino Snoqualmie is “every bit the Las Vegas experience.” The casino opened Nov. 6.

Northern Quest Airway Heights, Wash.

Farther east, the Northern Quest Casino, owned by the Kalispel Tribe, recently finished a new parking garage and expanded gaming facilities. It’s slated to finish construction on a new hotel by January 2010.

“The overall view of the tribe was to create a regional resort destination,” says Michael Wiprud, the tribe’s director of project planning. The current Northern Quest Casino opened in late 2000. The expansion is part of an overall plan to create an all-inclusive resort destination with gaming as a piece of that experience.

“This isn’t really about expanding the casino,” Wiprud says. “The tribe has a longer-term vision to keep building.” The current construction project included a 50,000 sq ft expansion of the existing casino and a six-story parking garage. Work is continuing on the 250-room hotel.

Wiprud estimates construction costs for the casino expansion and parking garage at approximately $105 million. The tribe estimates that the costs for the entire project are about $275 million. Hnedak Bobo Group of Memphis is providing design services. J. E. Dunn of Seattle is the general contractor for the expansion project, and Garco Construction of Spokane is the general contractor for the parking garage.

The casino is just a few minutes outside of Spokane in Airway Heights. Construction management services are being provided by Meridian Construction Management of Spokane.

Lead architect Paul Bell says the project’s biggest challenge has been the fast-track schedule. While the project was slated to begin construction in January, it didn’t actually begin construction until April due to severe and late winter weather in Spokane and a change in general contractors at the last minute.

“We have lots and lots of conference calls,” Bell says. “We keep the communication and dialogue flowing in ways that protect everyone’s interests.”

The ground of eastern Washington also presented problems. “We’ve got this basalt foundation in Airway Heights, and we’ve been spending a lot of money on blasting,” Wiprud says. “Digging a hole in the ground has proven to be a difficult thing.” ALLWEST Testing and Engineering. Spokane, Wash, is providing geotechnical services.

The parking garage opened in November; the casino expansion opened New Year’s Eve. The resort hotel is scheduled to open New Year’s Eve 2009.

Angel of the Winds Casino, Arlington, Wash.

Just four years after its initial opening in 2004, Angel of the Winds Casino in Arlington, Wash., is tripling its size with a $44 million expansion.

The casino is owned by the Stillaguamish Tribe. ICI Design Group of Minneapolis is providing design services on the project. The initial 22,000 sq ft building will gain an additional 84,000 sq ft of gaming floor, restaurant and administration space in the current expansion, scheduled for completion in late December. An additional remodel of existing facilities will be completed in the spring.

“This expansion more than doubles the gaming floor,” says Mark Peterson, project manager with J. E. Dunn of Seattle, general contractor on the project. “They’re going from 14,000 to 31,000 sq ft of gaming floor.” Peterson says the expansion adds a lot of nongaming space as well. “We’re adding a 150-seat restaurant and a 50-seat lounge with an entertainment stage,” he says. “The original structure didn’t have much in the way of back-of-the-house operations space. The new building now consolidates all of that into the new structure.”

The expansion provides space for restaurant and food services operations, administrative services such as marketing and accounting, and security functions.

Tulalip Resort Casino, Tulalip, Wash.

With the opening of its new 370-room, 12- story luxury hotel in late summer, the Tulalip Resort Casino has become a complete resort destination experience.

“We wanted to create a four-star, four-diamond destination with all the amenities of a resort,” says Brett Magnan, the resort’s executive vice president. “This is a place where people will want to stay for two to three days.”

The new resort includes a 14,000 sq ft spa, an additional restaurant, a pool with a water feature and bridge, and convention and meeting space. The casino also expanded to include about 15,000 sq ft of new gaming area.

Mortenson Construction of Seattle was the general contractor on the project. Ruhl Parr & Associates of Bellevue, Wash., provided design services. The resort is owned by the Tulalip Tribes.

Brett Sisco, construction executive with Mortenson Construction, says the expansion was completed in less than two years. “It was an extremely aggressive schedule,” he adds. “We started construction with drawings that weren’t yet complete. Using building information modeling allowed us to advance the schedule.”

The new resort has already hosted conventions, meetings and weddings. Jim Anderson, senior associate with Ruhl Parr, says the pool area was designed to accommodate weddings with a bridal room on the second floor and a grand staircase that leads down to the pool, dubbed the Oasis.

“The pool is more of a grotto setting,” Anderson says. “The backdrop has rocks that form a 20-ft waterfall.” He adds that the waterfall is turned off during wedding ceremonies and the humidity of the room can be adjusted to make conditions comfortable for a wedding party and guests.

The resort also boasts a 1,000-guest ballroom. Magnan says the original plans called for a 400-room, two-star hotel, but the tribe decided to make changes early on. The room number was reduced to 370, and the size of each room was increased. “The smallest room is 500 sq ft,” Megnan says. “The largest is a 3,000 sq ft suite.” In trying to reproduce a consistent resort experience in each room, the construction team created an exact replica of a king room and hallway in the parking lot. “We spent $250,000 on it, but saved about $1.6 million” overall, Magnan says. He adds that the replica helped the resort’s sales team book conventions before the resort even opened. “We had about $2 million [in convention business] on the books when we opened,” he says.

Magnan says the tribe will continue to look to future expansion possibilities and is already working on a museum dedicated to the Tulalip Tribes and culture. The museum will open in early 2009. Mithun Architects of Seattle is providing design services on the approximately $8 million project.