The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians last week held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new 23-story, 317-room hotel tower at its Four Winds South Bend casino in Indiana. The second-tallest building in the city will have a reflective surface and be illuminated at night, said Pokagon Gaming Authority Chief Operating Officer and Four Winds South Bend General Manager Frank Freedman.
Amenities will include a spa, convention area, meeting space, ballroom, lounge, bar and grille, rooftop swimming pool and terraces with spectacular views. Construction should be completed in 24 months, Freedman said.
“We think that there’s a blue ocean of opportunity for conventions, conferences, meetings, weddings, social events, things like that, that currently we’re unable to really accommodate up in New Buffalo because it displaces our business model up there. We turn away a lot of that business there because a lot of it’s weekend-driven. Now we’ll be able to take that business and this hotel is built to accommodate that kind of business in addition to gamers,” he said.
Tribal Council Chairman and Pokagon Gaming Authority President Matthew Wesaw said, “We’ve been very pleased with the response from the community and the performance of Four Winds South Bend since it opened in January 2018. The expansion will bring to life a variety of exciting features and amenities we envisioned during our original planning process. Not only is this expansion an important milestone for all Pokagon citizens, but it also demonstrates our ongoing economic commitment to support the South Bend community, including the creation of more than 400 temporary constructions jobs and approximately 100 permanent new jobs to support our ongoing operations.”
Currently Four Winds South Bend offers 140,000 square feet of gaming space and includes more than 1,400 games, four restaurants, a players’ lounge, coffee shop, three bars, retail and 4,500 parking spaces.
In related news, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb recently named Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Sara Gonso Tait to negotiate a Class III compact with the Pokagon Band, responding to Wesaw’s request that the tribe be allowed to offer slots, table games and sports betting in addition to Class II games like bingo and electronic bingo.
Wesaw said, “We could offer a better experience for our customers. Right now, the only table game we can offer is poker so we would be able to offer all the other table games that we have in New Buffalo, craps, roulette, black jack.”
Four Winds’ gaming revenue is not a matter of public record but under its revenue-sharing agreement with the city of South Bend, it annually pays the city 2 percent of revenue or at least $1 million, whichever is greater. Last September the city received a first payment of $1.2 million, indicating annual revenues of $60 million. Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s spokesman Mark Bode said the city expects to receive this year’s payment soon.
The tribe operates three casinos in Michigan under the Four Winds name. The flagship facility is located in New Buffalo near the Indiana border, about 32 miles from the South Bend facility.
