After a year of construction, a topping-out ceremony recently was held at the new million, 9-story, 180-room hotel and 70,000 square foot event center at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minnesota, owned by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. The event center will offer two large ballrooms, several breakout meeting rooms and an executive meeting room with balcony views of the golf course. The new hotel and event center will be attached to the existing 586-room Mystic Lake Hotel.
Angela Heikes, chief executive officer at the tribe’s gaming enterprise, said the project has created 400 construction jobs and will offer 100 permanent positions. Mystic Lake is “always looking for new ways and amenities to serve our guests. Our banquet and convention space was undersized for our facilities, so it was a natural addition to our property,” Heikes said.
The 20-month project is expected to be completed by mid-December, said PCL Construction Services Project Director Dave Herrema. He noted the keys to the new Mystic Lake Center must be handed over in time for events surrounding Super Bowl LII to be held at U.S. Bank Stadium in February 2018 in Minneapolis. “The end date will not move. We will have the building turned over in time for Mystic Lake to host all their Super Bowl events,” Herrema said.
He added another major challenge is to minimize disruptions to casino visitors during construction. “The idea is to be very respectful of the Mystic Lake guests and try to impact them as little as possible. We tell our subcontractors, ‘It’s like you are building in someone’s home. They don’t want to hear you.’”
PCL also built Mystic Lake’s existing entertainment center and three hotel towers and renovated the main casino for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
