Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe opens multimillion hotel casino expansion
Celebrated Grand opening of multimillion Saganing Eagles Landing Hotel Casino
The newly expanded Saganing Eagles Landing Casino recently underwent a multimillion expansion and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe celebrated the grand opening on Friday, Sept. 6. With a ribbon-cutting ceremony and afterwards, guests sampled food and refreshments from the casino’s new full-service restaurant, The Landing.
The casino gives visitors a look at the heritage of the tribe behind the business, with drums, black ash baskets and moccasins are some of the items on display. All were made by or donated by members of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. “We tried to pull in some of the native components into the interior, the design, the displays,” said General Manager Bob VanWert.
After more than two years of construction and more than a decade of planning, the newly improved resort now includes a larger casino with 1,200 gaming machines, a new restaurant, a new bar and a new six-story hotel. Spence Brothers was the general contractor.
“We are so excited to complete the final stages of the expansion-construction that started in early 2017,” Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribal Council Chief Ronnie Ekdahl said in a statement. “This ribbon-cutting event marked the ‘end’ point of a long period of major improvements and thus, we want the public to come out and celebrate with us.”
VanWert said top-end players and tribal members were invited to a soft opening in August and the hotel booked up quickly. “We’re pretty much full for the next three weeks,” he said, showing off the new hotel pool area, fitness center and lobby, where a red “fancy dance shawl” with yellow fringe and woodland floral motif is displayed near a red “jingle dress” and other artefacts.
The casino’s new restaurant, The Landing, has seating for 200 and offers a variety of appetizers, sandwiches and entrees, including sirloin steak, ravioli and chicken marsala. Nearby at the new Creekside Lounge, guests can enjoy a signature drink, such as “Jackpot Punch” or “Kiss From Lady Luck.”
The new hotel, which is entirely non-smoking, has 148 rooms, including eight suites with kitchenettes and separate sitting areas. Nightly rates for standard rooms start at about US$119. The expansion also created more than 200 jobs. When the casino and hotel are fully staffed, they’ll employ nearly 550, VanWert said. “(It’s) good for the Tribe and the area itself, as a whole,” he said.
