Pardon their dust. With half of the San Diego area’s 10 casinos undergoing expansions and renovations, construction cone orange is as ubiquitous these days as blackjack table green.
All combined, Barona Resort & Casino, Harrah’s Resort Southern California, Pechanga Resort & Casino, Sycuan Casino and Viejas Casino & Resort are spending an estimated $1 billion on development projects big and small.
Here’s an update on some of the changes underway — or already in place — at local casinos.
Sycuan Casino
Ground was broken recently on Sycuan’s $226 million expansion, which is expected to catapult one of the county’s first casinos into the luxury resort category.
Among the significant amenity additions Sycuan plans to make are a 12-story hotel, pool complex, spa, conference space and multiple new dining venues. And the casino floor hasn’t been overlooked — it will also be growing.
Hotel: The new hotel tower will feature 300 guest rooms, 50 of which will be suites. Room sizes will range from 376 square feet to a 1,150-square-foot luxury suite. The hotel will have a full service-spa and fitness area at about 8,451 square feet, with treatment rooms, steam room and sauna and the latest exercise equipment.
Pool: No full-scale resort can be without a serious pool playground and Sycuan is planning a major one. The aquatic and garden area will have an adult pool with cabanas, a pool deck with a bar and grill, a sprawling lazy river and a designated children’s pool.
Event center: Conferences, concerts, weddings, large private parties, business gatherings and social functions will be held at a new indoor/outdoor event center. An 11,401-square-foot ballroom, with seating capacity for 1,200 and banquet space for 700, is being built, as well as a 5,297-square-foot junior ballroom, complete with pool, garden and hillside views.
Dining: Sycuan is revamping its whole menu of culinary offerings, adding four new restaurants, while making improvements at existing food and beverage outlets, and converting the Game Day Sports Bar & Grill into a gastropub serving local craft brews. The new venues are a 7,363-square-foot Fresh Market, with multiple fast-casual choices, 4,940-square-foot raw bar, with an outdoor lounge, a contemporary 6,144-square-foot cafe, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and a showpiece 8,166-square-foot, chef-driven, fine dining restaurant.
Gaming: The current 90,000-square-foot casino floor will be expanded by 60,000 square feet and will add 800 slot machines, bringing the total to 2,800 and doubling the table games to 80.
Harrah’s Resort Southern California
Harrah’s SoCal is putting the finishing touches on its spa improvement project, a few months after opening the county’s first tribal-run brewery.
Spa: The renovated and expanded Spa at Harrah’s is expected to debut in early summer. The new facility, located off the lobby of the 1,065-room hotel, has been enlarged by about 3,000 square feet to nearly 11,000 square feet. The spa features 15 treatment rooms, a barbershop, salon, and such new treatments as salt baths. “The casual, yet elevated” space, according to a statement, “will provide guests an ultimate relaxation experience in true Southern California-style with laid back and calming design elements.”
SR76: The recently opened SR76 is a 5,000-square-foot brewery right on the resort property. SR76’s brewmaster, Brian Scott, is the former president of the San Diego Brewer’s Guild and has considerable local craft beer bona fides, hailing from Firehouse Brewing, Mission Brewery and Karl Strauss. The brews crafted there are available throughout the Harrah’s SoCal property, though Scott’s lineup doesn’t include an IPA, a San Diego signature.
“Beer tourism is big now … so it gives (us) an opportunity to have that slice right here on our property, that no one else is offering,” Scott told the U-T’s Liz Bowen. “This is the first brewery opened by a tribe and at a resort like this.”
As for the brews, here’s U-T beer critic Peter Rowe’s take: “For my money, Supul is SR76’s standout … loaded with tart, fruity flavors. When summer hits this Vegas-style resort with Vegas-style heat, this is what I’d drink — over and over — while lazing by the casino’s pool.”
Pechanga Resort & Casino
The mega-property’s $285 million expansion reached its midway point on April 18, with the first phase completed in March with the opening of a 2,400-space East Parking garage. The new parking facility will feature 44 electric car charging stations and three Tesla superchargers and will also soon have rooftop solar s.
The sizable expansion project includes a new hotel tower, which will bring the Temecula resort’s total number of rooms to 1,090, making it the biggest casino hotel in California. Also being built is a 4-acre pool complex, with eight pools and spas and a two-story, 24,000-square-foot stand-alone spa, with 17 treatment rooms and a salon. Two new restaurants and an additional 68,000 square feet of meeting and event space are also under construction.
Barona Resort & Casino
Barona has made no official announcement on its modest expansion project but it has told guests — via casino signs and newsletters — that “We’re making room for more loose slots.”
While construction is going on, handicap parking spaces have been temporarily relocated from the parking lot to fourth floor of the parking garage. Pedi-cabs offer “Lucky Lifts” to the casino from the garage entrance.
The expansion will bring a new entrance, a restroom rotunda, with new facilities, an enhanced non-smoking slot area, a new general store and a larger Barona Coffee Company.
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