The 0 million Ilani Casino Resort is ready to open April 24 on the Cowlitz Indian Reservation near La Center, Washington. A new agreement between Clark County and the tribe means that there will be sheriff’s deputies available to provide law enforcement.
With the last legal challenge dealt a death blow by the U.S. Supreme Court several weeks ago and the agreement with the county under its belt, the casino has nothing in its way to prevent it from opening.
The casino is a joint project of the tribe and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, which owns the Mohegan Sun.
Besides the casino, with its 2,500 slots and 75 gaming tables, the 368,000-square foot resort will have 15 restaurants, bars and retail stores. Its convention center will accommodate 2,500 concert goers when it opens later this year.
Among the restaurants will be a sushi and noodle shop, a Michael Jordan steakhouse, Rose & Thorn, offering upscale international street food; Longhouse, a raw bar, Line & Lure Seafood Kitchen and Tap.
It will also have the Muze and 360 bars. The 360 will operate in the center of the gaming space, giving a panoramic view of all the action. It will be decorated with Cowlitz tribe imagery, such as salmon “tornado” rising above it. The Muze will be where patrons can watch stage acts.
Retail shops include Marshall Rousso women’s fashions, Ruby Blue, which offers accessories, handbags, jewelry and gift items. The Cowlitz Trading Post stocks ilani merchandise, gaming gifts and an assortment of other items.
Phase 2 could include a hotel and poker rooms. The land will also eventually house tribal government buildings.
The Friedmutter Group design incorporates Pacific Northwest elements and motifs, lots of wood stone and glass and taking advantage of Washington’s stunning scenery.
Tribal Chairman Bill Iyall greeted the impending opening: “We are extremely pleased to open the doors to Ilani and provide the local community with a source for economic growth,” adding, “Our destination is expected to attract over 4.5 million visitors a year, and we feel certain that local businesses will benefit from increased visitation to the area.”
“This is the culmination of a pledge to the Cowlitz Indian tribe by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA), and it represents an enormous accomplishment by the dedicated teams of both organizations and all our talented construction partners,” said MTGA CEO Mitchell Grossinger Etess.
“We are thrilled to welcome the community to an exciting new entertainment destination that is ilani,” said Kara Fox-LaRose, president and general manager of ilani. “In addition to a variety of gaming and entertainment options, we’ve assembled a fine collection of restaurants, bars and retail establishments to provide a fabulous experience for our guests at every turn. We have hired and trained more than 1,000 people to staff ilani, and they are ready to embrace the obvious enthusiasm and anticipation for this project around the Southwest Washington and greater Portland areas.”
Ilani means “sing” in the language of the Cowlitz, who have 4,100 members living around western Washington in Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pierce, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties.
The proposed law enforcement agreement between Clark County and the tribe was released last week and will be voted on by the county council this week. This first agreement, which will need to be renewed after one year, will also need to be approved by the Cowlitz Tribal Council.
The agreement is needed before the casino opens since the reservation has no police department and local deputies and police from Ridgefield and La Center would not be able to respond there without it. The tribe agrees to adopt the state code for the reservation, however deputies will have no authority over tribal members, but can detain them until federal police officers arrive. The tribe will draft its own criminal code under the terms of the agreement.
The tribe will pay the sheriff’s department $250,000 annually, and pay various costs for jail services, court costs and prosecuting attorney expenses.
The various police agencies need this agreement to be covered by insurance if they respond into the reservation. However, they don’t expect to respond very often since they have small staffs, and they won’t be compensated for responding out of their jurisdiction, and tribal members don’t pay taxes in their cities.
The casino has its own security force of about 100 officers.
The tribe already has an agreement with the Clark County Fire & Rescue department.
The tribe’s wastewater treatment system, which it built to serve the casino when the county refused to agree to provide sewer service, has been a source of controversy because the county was worried that it might pollute the aquifer. However, state laws about sewer systems don’t apply to the tribe, which must instead satisfy the Environmental Protection Agency.
It is expected to siphon an estimated $200 million from neighboring card rooms—some of which have already closed—tribal casinos in Oregon and the Oregon Lottery. The casino is 45 miles from Portland, and expects to draw a large part of its patronage from that urban area.
It will also have a large impact on the small towns that surround it. Already more than 1,000 local people have been hired to work there with an annual payroll of more than $45 million, not to mention the more than 2,100 construction workers who have built it.
The casino sits on 152 acres just off Interstate 5, which runs from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. It is just outside Ridgefield city limits and next to the small village of La Center, which has several card clubs that have provided it with 75 percent of its tax base for years. The city government is already looking at downsizing drastically in the face of two of those card rooms closing due to dealers leaving to go work for the much better paying Indian casino.
The tribe is paying for the $100 million interchange off I-5 that will help funnel patrons off the freeway and into the casino.
Many residents of the rural area fear that their way of life will change forever. Local businesses, though, hope to get some of the benefits of more tourists in the area.
Anthony Sharrah, owner of the Trellis gift shop and a local bar in Ridgefield told KGW News: “The amount of people it’s going to bring to the area – as far as the type of businesses I have – I think it’s going to benefit them.” He added, “Everybody who lives here works someplace else, so we don’t have a lunch crowd. You have a handful of housewives who maybe don’t work. It will be nice to have some other sort of revenue stream for our residents.”
Unlike La Center, Ridgefield is already growing dramatically, so local officials like the mayor, Ron Onslow, don’t expect to see a dramatic effect from the casino.
He told KGW: “It’s growing very fast. Last year we had 350 new homes built and they were all sold before they were finished. This year we expect at least that many, maybe more. We have land, we have great schools. People like our little downtown.”
Other residents of Ridgefield are looking forward to having a casino in their neighborhood.
The formerly landless Cowlitz tribe was forcibly removed from its homeland in the late 1800s when it refused to sign a treaty with the U.S. government. According to Iyall, “we fought for more than 160 years for a reservation.” The federal government recognized the tribe in 2000. In 2004 the tribe became partners with the Mohegan Tribe, which has invested more than $510 million.
