The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation plans to break ground on a new $700 million resort at Foxwoods in Connecticut this summer.
The project will add nearly 2 million square feet of overall space to Foxwoods and 60 percent more hotel space and will require about 2,300 new employees.
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The new resort is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008.
It includes a 5,000-seat theater; two nightclubs with a combined size of 20,000 square feet with three lounges; four restaurants and four new stores; a 21,000-square-foot spa and a new 825-room hotel to add to the 1,416 rooms in its three hotels.
There will also be a new casino with 50,000 square feet of space to accommodate 1,500 slot machines and 45 table games, bringing the total to 8,900 slot machines and 425 table games.
In comparison, Newport Grand has 1,000 video lottery terminals and Lincoln Park has 2,400.
The tribe is also adding four times more space for corporate meetings, conventions and trade shows. An additional 145,000 square feet of floor space for meetings and conventions will bring the total to 200,000 square feet. They are adding a new 50,000-square-foot ballroom that will be twice the size of the existing ballroom plus a junior ballroom totaling 30,000 square feet and a pre-function area of 15,000 square feet for receptions and events.
The new convention space will add to an already highly competitive convention market for the Rhode Island Convention Center.
When completed, the new resort will also give Foxwoods an additional 2,900-space parking garage.
The expansion may make Foxwoods – which is about an hour drive from both Newport Grand and Lincoln Park – a stronger competitor for the two gaming facilities, which generated more than $119 million for the state of Rhode Island in the last six months of 2004.
Newport Grand President Diane Hurley said the expansion will strengthen Foxwoods’ ability to compete but she isn’t too concerned.
“We faced the same issue three years ago when Mohegan Sun underwent a $1.1 billion expansion, but we have grown our revenue every year since then and will work hard to continue that growth,” Hurley said.
