Goodbye, Bingo—the word no longer is part of the Forest County Potawatomi Community’s Milwaukee establishment, which recently officially changed its name to Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. The “hotel” part of the name refers to the new .5 million, 381-room hotel addition, which will open August 18 and celebrate its grand opening on October 1.
Ground was broken for the project in June 2012. Located at 1721 West Canal Street, the 19-story addition also will include Locavore, a full-service casual restaurant, as well as a lobby bar, coffee shop and fitness center. Events already are scheduled for the facility’s new meeting space in August and September. The hotel will add approximately 230 full- and part-time jobs to the casino’s payroll of just over 2,600 employees.
Until the hotel opens, Potawatomi, which draws 6 million annual visits, remains the largest tribal casino in the U.S. without a hotel. Casino officials said adding the hotel will attract customers from a 100-mile radius, as compared to the current 25-mile area. About 90 percent of the hotel’s guests will be visitors who now do not stay overnight in Milwaukee. As an off-reservation enterprise, the hotel will pay property taxes and the city’s hotel tax.
