7.31.07New Buffalo facility swings open to public Thursday
By HEATHER NEWMAN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A gigantic new casino is poised to appear on the southwest corner of the state, attracting day-trippers and resorters from Detroit, Indiana and Chicago.
It has more gaming space than Detroit’s current casinos, a woodsy, luxury lodge-like ambience, and will have a permanent hotel up and running before any of Detroit’s gambling houses.
It’s the Four Winds Casino Resort, opening Wednesday for media tours and at noon Thursday to the public just off Exit 1 of I-94 near New Buffalo, and it’s one of three new casino locations expected to open in Michigan cities in the next year or two.
"Absolutely beautiful. First class," said 50-year-old construction worker Bernie Marshall of Mill Creek, Ind., as he scraped and cleaned windows on the outside of the hotel recently. "I’ve been in a lot of casinos, and this one is the top I’ve seen."
The impact on Detroit’s casinos will be hard to measure. All three claim some outstate, Indiana and Illinois traffic as part of their audience; due to competitive reasons, they’re unwilling to say exactly how much. But those day-trippers may find that passing up Four Winds’ gorgeous stone and heavy-wood buildings — tucked into a mostly natural, 675-acre wooded estate, a scant mile or two from the big lake — may be enough to get them exiting the expressway early.
"It’s going to be spectacular," project director Matt Harkness said. Four Winds, which is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and run by Lakes Entertainment Inc., will include 130,000 square feet of gaming space, 3,000 slot machines, 110 table games including poker, six restaurants and a 165-room suite hotel.
That makes it bigger (for gambling, anyway) than anything in the state other than the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant — and it’s a lot more convenient for some folks to get to.
Three other, smaller projects are expected to pass the last legislative and legal hurdles to open in the next year or two: one by the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi in Wayland Township south of Grand Rapids; the Firekeepers Casino near Battle Creek, run by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi; and a satellite operation of the Soaring Eagle Casino in Standish.
Area business owners and convention officials are cautiously optimistic about the tourists the Four Winds project may bring from Chicago, Indiana and elsewhere in Michigan. (Complete Story)
By HEATHER NEWMAN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A gigantic new casino is poised to appear on the southwest corner of the state, attracting day-trippers and resorters from Detroit, Indiana and Chicago.
It has more gaming space than Detroit’s current casinos, a woodsy, luxury lodge-like ambience, and will have a permanent hotel up and running before any of Detroit’s gambling houses.
It’s the Four Winds Casino Resort, opening Wednesday for media tours and at noon Thursday to the public just off Exit 1 of I-94 near New Buffalo, and it’s one of three new casino locations expected to open in Michigan cities in the next year or two.
"Absolutely beautiful. First class," said 50-year-old construction worker Bernie Marshall of Mill Creek, Ind., as he scraped and cleaned windows on the outside of the hotel recently. "I’ve been in a lot of casinos, and this one is the top I’ve seen."
The impact on Detroit’s casinos will be hard to measure. All three claim some outstate, Indiana and Illinois traffic as part of their audience; due to competitive reasons, they’re unwilling to say exactly how much. But those day-trippers may find that passing up Four Winds’ gorgeous stone and heavy-wood buildings — tucked into a mostly natural, 675-acre wooded estate, a scant mile or two from the big lake — may be enough to get them exiting the expressway early.
"It’s going to be spectacular," project director Matt Harkness said. Four Winds, which is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and run by Lakes Entertainment Inc., will include 130,000 square feet of gaming space, 3,000 slot machines, 110 table games including poker, six restaurants and a 165-room suite hotel.
That makes it bigger (for gambling, anyway) than anything in the state other than the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant — and it’s a lot more convenient for some folks to get to.
Three other, smaller projects are expected to pass the last legislative and legal hurdles to open in the next year or two: one by the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi in Wayland Township south of Grand Rapids; the Firekeepers Casino near Battle Creek, run by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi; and a satellite operation of the Soaring Eagle Casino in Standish.
Area business owners and convention officials are cautiously optimistic about the tourists the Four Winds project may bring from Chicago, Indiana and elsewhere in Michigan. (Complete Story)
No comments:
Post a Comment