Artist’s rendering of Valley View Casino’s expansion.

By the end of the year, a new 1,200-space, six-story parking garage will be finished at Valley View Casino, lifting its total parking spaces to 2,000. But that’s only part of a $115 million expansion program at the Valley Center gaming resort owned by the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians. As soon as the parking garage is finished, work will begin on casino expansion — six new dining venues, three new bars, 450 new slot machines and 14 new table games. The additions will give the casino more than 1,700 slot and video poker machines and 24 table games.

A few miles north of Valley View, Pala Casino operators are hoping to expand. The Pala Band of Mission Indians is proposing to add 70,000 square feet to the casino and entertainment floor, build 1,500 additional spaces in the parking structure, add 50 hotel rooms, enlarge the spa and make road improvements on State Route 76. An environmental impact report is being prepared on the proposals. The casino opened in 2001 with 187,000 square feet. A 507-room hotel, spa, pools and multi-level parking structure, two restaurants, more meeting space and 24,000 square feet of new casino floor space were added in 2003. The tribe says demand for more hotel rooms, restaurant seating and parking has exceeded the supply on several occasions.

At Valley View, the new dining venues will include a Market Square Steak and Seafood Buffet, a steakhouse, a 24-hour cafe with American and Asian cuisine, a walkup homemade pastry and coffee bar, an ice cream shop and a dining room and grill providing free meals to all employees. The tribe says it will need to add 300 employees when the expansion is finished in the fall of 2007.

Also in North County, the Pauma tribe is partnering with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut to develop a $300 million casino with 2,000 slot machines plus a 500-room hotel by 2009, replacing the existing Casino Pauma, which has 1,050 slot machines. In East County, the La Posta Band has a $20 million, 20,000-square-foot casino under construction that will contain 349 slot machines and an International House of Pancakes. Completion is expected at the end of the year.

— Manny Cruz