Tohono O’Odham Nation kicks off construction on $450M West Valley casino

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By Audrey Jensen – Reporter, Phoenix Business Journal Apr 5, 2023

Desert Diamond Casinos, the gaming enterprise arm for Tohono O’Odham Nation, kicked off construction Wednesday with a ceremony for its new $450 million casino complex in the West Valley.

The first phase of the casino will be the Desert Diamond Casinos’ fifth in Arizona and include 900 slot machines, more than 30 table games, a poker room with 12 tables, a sportsbook and bar.

The more than 200,000-square-foot facility will also feature a central bar that can be accessed through a valet entrance, a food hall with four restaurants as well as an additional fine-dining restaurant, a casual restaurant and a retail store.

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“We’re looking to establish a high-quality experience for our guests in terms of amenities they can enjoy as well as the great person-to-person service our team is known for,” Mike Bean, CEO of Desert Diamond Casino and Entertainment, told the Business Journal.

It will be situated across 110 acres in the Glendale area, just north of the Wildlife World Zoo and Luke Air Force Base along the Loop 303, a burgeoning industrial corridor with tens of millions of square feet in warehouse space along the freeway.

A second phase could include a new hotel, pool, spa, convention space, and more retail and dining options, but a timeline and cost has yet to be determined for this portion of the project.

The casino is expected to bring 5,500 construction jobs and 950 permanent jobs, which could increase to 1,300 once the second phase is built. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.

Additional partners on the project include JCJ Architecture and general contractors Las Vegas-based Penta Building Group, which has built other casinos in the Valley, and Hunt Construction, also known as AECOM Hunt.

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New casino ‘complete contrast’ from first West Valley complex

Once built, the casino will sit about 20 minutes west of the nation’s existing Glendale casino, which first opened in 2015 and is located within the city’s expanding sports and entertainment district. The gaming enterprise is still considering adding a hotel, retail, spa and other venues to the site.

Early plans for the first Glendale casino faced strong pushback from competing tribes and city officials more than a decade ago, but attitudes toward the casino have changed since then and now the Glendale complex is its most visited in the state, the nation has previously said.

“All the work that the nation and enterprise did, and building partnerships in the West Valley that we will continue to build upon, that’s when I say it’s a complete contrast because of the work that everyone did together that we’re able to come to this day for a groundbreaking on the nation’s fifth property,” said Treena Parvello, director of government and public relations at Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise.

Desert Diamond Casinos has also expanded its presence in the West Valley by acquiring the naming rights for the former Gila River Arena in Glendale. It has also sponsored NASCAR events at Phoenix raceway in Avondale. Officials from most West Valley cities were in attendance at Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Building a new casino was made possible through the 2021 updated gaming compact that allowed for casino expansions, increased gambling options and the legalization of sports betting. Following the compact, casinos across the Valley have been adding more high-roller table games, roulette, baccarat and more to attract a more diverse group of gamblers and increase revenue.

The new West Valley facility will be the 10th casino built across the greater Phoenix area following the new Gila River Santan Mountain Casino that’s expected to open later this year. Both are the first to be developed in the Valley in about a decade.

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Casino will expand West Valley growth

Similar to the nation’s first West Valley casino, it will be located along a major freeway corridor and major road in a fast-growing area, surrounded by communities including Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Glendale, Peoria and Surprise.

“Like the West Valley casino, it will have easy access on and off,” Bean said. “It gives us greater access to the market that is to the west of the existing facility.”

The gaming enterprise said the casino will be the closest one to a “relatively substantial population” in the West Valley along the Loop 303. It also completed feasibility studies that the nation said confirmed the growth that’s occurring in the west part of the Valley.

“We were able to do that research and it showed that we were complementing the area, which is what is important to the nation. We want to be able to be part of the community,” Parvello said.

In addition to numerous existing and planned warehouses, the new casino will add to other new developments such as the Prasada shopping centers with more than 1 million square feet of store and restaurant space, a new Dignity Health hospital campus and more several miles north of the planned casino.

Parvello said the current gaming compact does not allow Tohono O’Odham Nation to build another casino after its newest casino is built in the West Valley. Right now, 16 Arizona tribes operate 24 class III casinos in the state, while the other six tribes that do not have casinos can lease slot machine rights to other tribes, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming.

The state reported $27.6 million in revenue from tribal gaming contributions in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. This is a nearly 20% increase compared to the same quarter in 2022. In fiscal year 2022, tribal casinos brought in a record $123.65 million of revenue to the state’s coffers, a $21 million increase from the previous high in FY 2020.

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