The new Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington, was scheduled to debut in December 2019. While it missed that deadline, the $400 million casino resort is nearing completion, and should be ready to open its doors sometime in March.
The new casino, to be operated by the Puyallup Tribe, is the culmination of a decade of planning and five years of construction, General Manager Frank Wright told the Tacoma News-Tribune. The casino originally was located in a riverboat. The tribe now has two locations: the current Emerald Queen Tacoma I-5 casino, a former bingo hall with three large adjoining tents, which will close when the new property debuts, and a sister property in Fife, which will remain open.
“If you look at the Fife casino, it was originally designed primarily to help our elders have a place they feel safe and secure,” Wright said. “The rugs didn’t have busy patterns … the music was toned down. So when we built this new facility, this is jazzed up.”
The new site totals 310,000 square feet and includes a 110,000-square-foot gaming floor with 2,133 machines. It will offer five restaurants; a 21,000-square-foot event center that seats 2,000 people; and a 12-story, 170-room hotel and spa. It will also have conference space and a rooftop restaurant.
“It’s going to surprise many of our customers, just how incredibly beautiful it all is,” said Puyallup Tribal Council Vice Chairman Bill Sterud. “That first impact is going to be amazing.”
“The biggest thing we want our customers to see is the history, the beautiful heritage of The Puyallup Tribe of Indians,” said Chairman David Bean. ”We have been gaming since the beginning of time. And when you look around this facility, you’ll see the tribute to our ancestors, to our elders, thanking them for their sacrifices.”
The facility will add more than 200 jobs for an eventual total of 2,450. The tribe estimates the new casino and operations will add $1.5 billion to the local economy over the next decade.
“We are taking care of not just our community but our citizens in our neighboring communities in paying competitive-wage jobs,” said Bean.
