Wildhorse Resort & Casino resort near Pendleton, Oregon, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, has been forced to pull tighter the belt on its $85 million expansion to stay within budget.
The final plans were released last week by the casino in a release that stated: “Sticking to the original spending plan became a challenge when the price of steel increased drastically.” It continued, “The planning team carefully prioritized elements of the overall vision and created a realistic and innovative strategy that works within the $85 million budget.”
The original plan announced this summer was for a second 11-story hotel, a 32-lane bowling alley, four additional movie screens and five new restaurants.
Under the amended plans, the bowling lanes have been trimmed to 24.
Wildhorse CEO Gary George declared “After yearlong meetings with WRC staff and the Board of Trustees, we finally settled on a project that we can afford.”
The new tower will be ready for occupation by the end of 2020. It will include convention space with room for 1,500 seats. There will be a 24-hour eatery and food court, an entertainment center and arcade. A new poker room will seat up to 90 players.
Construction will mean demolishing the original hotel built in 1996, which will continue to operate until March 31 of next year. That will leave the resort short of 100 rooms until the new hotel comes on line.
This is the fifth expansion for the resort, which started out as a temporary building with 100 slots.
The expansion will need as many as 350 contractors to make the plans a reality. Construction will be overseen by Lydig Construction of Kennewick. Lydig director of business development Bob Bennie commented, “To find people to fill these positions is going to be the reality test.”
The project will also have to take into account steel tariffs from China and tariffs on wood from Canada.
