tribe may have grown , but in an awkward way , where perhaps they have expanded the casino a bit and now they need more amenities to balance the situation . Or perhaps they have a casino , but now they need a hotel .”
One illustration of smart growth features the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe in Idaho . TBE is helping the tribe replace a casino and connect it to the hotel . About 100 yards separate the hotel and casino now . Closing that football-field-sized gap will put prominent financial points on the board .
“ Typically , if you are in a casino and the weather is not right , the tendency is to get up in the
( l . to r .) Oklahoma ’ s Indigo Sky Casino , owned by the Eastern Shawnee tribe ; The Yavapai-Apache Nation ’ s Cliff Castle Casino in Arizona ; Cypress Bayou , owned by Louisiana ’ s Chitimacha Nation
morning , check out of the hotel and leave ,” Boyd says . “ But if you get up and the casino is right there , figure for a big chance that the customers will game before they head out .
“ The value of attaching the hotel to the casino is huge for another reason , which is why we encourage a lot of tribes to do it . If players are big gamers , just comp them for the room . Let ’ s say you determine that the value of a hotel night is $ 150 . You comp that player , and as far as he is concerned , that ’ s free money . The first thing he is going to do is game for $ 150 . Attaching the hotel to the casino extends the stay of the gamer .”
Blaine Edmo , chairman of the Tribal Council for Shoshone-Bannock , says his property embraces two trends . One is great geography . His competition is several hours away in all directions . Second , he believes the tribes have benefited from wise growth .
“ They are a little more responsible in maintaining a certain level of business ,” he says . “ The tribe tries to keep it at a reasonable level , not the type of extravagance you see in many other places . I know many of them are lavish and impressive , but expensive . People who come to gamble come for the atmosphere , and as long as you have a clean facility and you are not overly congested , people will come . What you have to avoid ,
DJ Afrojack at however , is a casino that looks run down .” Hakkasan Nightclub
While broad expansion strokes may be apparent , the subtleties of when to build and how expensive to go remain tricky forecasts . Boyd says his company will double the size of a hotel at the Indigo Sky Casino for the Eastern Shawnee in Oklahoma after watching its initial suggestions rejected .
“ We are building another hotel tower and a convention center , along with expanding some of their food venues ,” Boyd indicates . “ We built the first one for them four years ago , and they are turning people away . We recommended a bigger hotel in the beginning , but they wanted to go at it cautiously , which we certainly understand .”
A cautious buildout is usually smart ; most businesses err in
the opposite direction . They overbuild , inflate the perceived market and suffer huge losses . The fact that some officials may later kick themselves for not building sooner is a nice problem . This boom would have been hard to forecast in the midst of the Great Recession .
Thalden Boyd Emery already lent a creative hand in building the property .
Indigo Sky graces the rolling , wooded hills of northeast Oklahoma . An economical way to give the site a natural feel was to level the site , which was a rocky hill . TBE blasted the site and brought in a heavy-duty crusher . Major pieces of the rock were used in bank stabilization , and made 45,000 tons for the rock base for parking and building pads .
The tribe also wanted the swan ( symbolic of the tribe ’ s grace and dignity ) and panther ( symbolic of the tribe ’ s strength , courage and prowess in battle ) in their project . The symbols are incorporated into the water feature at the porte cochere .
RENOVATE , INNOVATE
“ THE MARKET SHOWS A COMBINATION OF RENOVATION AND addition ,” says Brett Ewing , associate principal for Minnesotabased Cuningham Group , which has specialized in tribal gaming since the 1980s . “ As gaming has expanded and proliferated everywhere , the customers have become more savvy ,” Ewing says . “ Gaming is still strong in the Native American market and continuing to grow .
“ Renovations are , by design , messy . There are surprises when you open up the old walls , things the drawings don ’ t generally tell you . Yet , your operators want to run the business while they are working on it . You are , in a sense , doing surgery on somebody and keeping them alive while you are doing it .”
Some of Cuningham ’ s recent projects reveal different elements of flexibility . One of them is the new luxury hotel for the Yavapai-Apache Nation ’ s Cliff Castle Casino in Arizona . Cuningham will do the architecture and interior design on a
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