The Forest County of Potawatomi Community celebrated on Thursday the topping off of the $80-million expansion of its Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The project involves the construction of a new hotel tower that is attached to the property’s existing 19-story hotel tower. The new facility itself will occupy a 19-story building. s
The topping-off ceremony marked a milestone that would move construction inside the new 180,000-square-foot hotel tower. Word about a potential expansion at the hotel and casino complex first spread early in 2017. Potawatomi broke ground on the expansion last December after receiving all the necessary regulatory approvals and being given the nod by the host community. The new facility is expected to open doors in the spring of 2019.
The $80-million expansion plan will add 119 hotel rooms to the property’s existing 381-room hotel, bringing the total count to 500 rooms and making Potawatomi Hotel Milwaukee’s second largest accommodation facility. The new hotel will also include additional meeting space and a spa. Gilbane Building Company had been appointed as the contractor for the project.
Potawatomi is topping off its newest building just four years after the opening of the original 19-story hotel tower. Potawatomi Hotel & Casino commenced operation back in 1991 as a 40,000-square-foot bingo hall. The property has been expanded over the years to now feature one of Wisconsin’s largest gaming floors. It offers a bingo hall that can accommodate nearly 2,500 players as well as a number of slot machines and table games, including blackjack, roulette, and craps, among others.
Casino’s Rapid Growth
In previous comments regarding Potawatomi’s ongoing expansion, the property’s CEO and General Manager, Rodney Ferguson, who assumed his posts last September, has said that the addition of a new hotel tower was another example of how much and how rapidly the complex has grown in the community.
The expansion project has been carried out without assistance from the host city, it has previously been revealed. Upon groundbreaking, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett praised Potawatomi for being able to add two hotel towers in just a couple of years and for striving to implement diversity when hiring workforce and to create jobs for residents of the host community.
Potawatomi Hotel & Casino currently employs around 2,700 people. The expansion is anticipated to add 50 new hotel jobs.
Owners of the gaming and hotel complex are looking to meet the growing demand for accommodation with the new tower. The 2014 expansion of Potawatomi Hotel & Casino that saw the addition of the 381-room hotel expanded the casino’s patron draw from a 25-mile radius to a 150-mile radius. A similar effect is expected to be produced with the addition of the second 19-story hotel tower.
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