Lucky Eagle hotel under construction
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 8:18 AM PDT
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleROCHESTER, Wash. -- Work has begun on a 70-room hotel at the Lucky Eagle Casino, one of a number of tribal casino expansion projects in the south Puget Sound area.
The hotel will cost $6.5 million to $7 million and is tentatively scheduled for completion in March, said Jay May, director of economic development for the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.
"A prior feasibility study recommended we build a hotel," Lucky Eagle manager John Setterstrom said. "We chose to pause because the tribe had acquired land along Interstate 5 and hoped to build a hotel-casino there.
"But that has turned out to be a long and arduous process and the market dictated that we move forward with the hotel."
Elsewhere, the Nisqually tribe's Red Wind casino in Olympia is expanding to 85,000 square feet, a $31 million project that includes a 928-stall parking garage. The Squaxin Island tribe opened a 92-room hotel at Little Creek Casino near Shelton in December, and the Puyallup tribe bought the 138-room Best Western Fife Hotel in June and plans to replace its neighboring riverboat casino by the end of October.
When the Red Wind and Lucky Eagle projects are completed, employment at those two casinos and Little Creek will grow to about 1,800 people.
The Squaxin tribe already is the largest employer in Mason County, and tribal casinos trail only government and health care providers among employers in Thurston County.
The only other tribal casinos with hotels in the state are the Skagit Valley Casino near Mount Vernon and the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores.
Tribal casinos have been on the upswing in Washington since they were allowed to add slot-style machines in 1999, operators said.
"Before that we only had table games," said Bill Nucciarone, Red Wind's marketing manager. "Slot players and table players are two different animals."
At the same time, more people are taking shorter vacations closer to home.
"Some people used to go to Reno and Vegas just to play the slots," Nucciarone said. "Now that entertainment budget is being spent in state."
In 2002 the Lucky Eagle completed a $6 million project that ranged from remodeling to the addition of 20,000 square feet, including more restaurants and a 1,200-seat event center for performers and boxing nights, bringing the total to 65,000 square feet.
Those performing at the seemingly out-of-the-way casino since then include Glen Campbell, Roy Clark and Debbie Reynolds, and singer Tony Curtis has become the Lucky Eagle's spokesman for marketing campaigns.
The casino's bus program, instituted in 2001, now provides free shuttles or charters from as far as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Salem, Ore.
"We're up to 130 buses a month," Setterstrom said. "The success of those one-day trips has led to greater and greater demand for overnight opportunities. The hotel will allow us to do that."
In addition, he said, the hotel should make the nine-year-old Lucky Eagle more attractive to Seattle and Portland, Ore., residents who will be able to drive there, gamble or take in some entertainment and spend the night.
"It allows us to go after a whole new market," Setterstrom said.
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