As one Southern California casino nears completion on a new resort, another has suspended its expansion plans.
While Soboba Casino in San Jacinto plans to open its new 200-room hotel and casino in the first quarter of 2019, Pala Casino Spa & Resort officials aren’t building a previously announced hotel tower — for now, at least.
Soboba Casino in San Jacinto is among the latest Southern California casinos to get into the resort game as Native American tribes have bet on expanding their casinos and resorts in recent years.
San Manuel Casino broke ground a few weeks ago on its new $550 million expansion with the first phase, a new parking structure — already underway — which will be followed by an entertainment venue, scheduled to be completed in 2021, and then a hotel and resort.
Pechanga Resort & Casino’s new hotel tower, events center and restaurant opened in December and in March, the Temecula property debuted its resort-style pool complex.
Unlike the other expansions, the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians is building an entirely new property. Soboba Casino Resort will have approximately 474,000 square feet of interior space and sit on 37.5 acres about a mile from the current casino, which doesn’t have a hotel or resort amenities like pools or multiple restaurants.
“We are excited to see this long-awaited dream become a reality,” Scott Cozart, tribal chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, said in a statement. “This beautiful new facility will bring so much to our community and the entire region for many generations to come.”
The new gaming floor will be bigger than the entirety of the current casino, but the complex will have the same number of slot machines and table games. Players at the 2,000 machines and 32 tables will simply have more elbow room.
One of the biggest upgrades at Soboba Casino Resort will be the food — with 22,000 square feet of food service space that will include a noodle restaurant, a food court, a 24-hour cafe and a coffee shop. There will also be a cabaret lounge, a lobby bar and banquet facilities.
In addition to 200 rooms in the six-story hotel, there will be a 15,000-square-foot conference center, a bar, pool and a fitness center.
At the groundbreaking ceremony in February 2017, officials said it would take 16-18 months to complete the project and in a news release issued a few months later, a fall 2018 target date was announced. Officials now expect to open in the first quarter of 2019 but didn’t give a specific opening date.
To the south, Pala Casino Spa & Resort broke ground on the resort’s $170 million expansion in October 2017 and immediately got to work renovating the pool complex and a hotel tower was expected to follow. But officials have put the brakes on the lodging.
“There’s been movement in the market, with Pechanga’s expansion and San Manuel doubling up on gaming,” Bill Bembenek, chief executive officer of Pala Casino Spa & Resort, said in a statement. “We are still deciding with the new tower when to start building and how much to build.”
But Pala hasn’t cooled on all of its renovations and expansion plans. A new complex featuring several pools, an outdoor bar and lounge areas for guests 21 and older opened in May, while the re-vamped restaurant and bar, Luis Rey’s, an upgraded smoke-free gaming area , new gaming space and Marquise Bar were all unveiled at the end of June.
And Bembenek said a remodeling of the existing 507 rooms will begin in October. As for the new hotel tower, he said Pala has the architectural and design plans ready.
“We will revisit it in full after we see how the summer goes,” Bembenek wrote. “So far, it has been very, very busy.”
