Joe Navarro, president and CEO of San Pasqual Casino Development Corp., presides over a $114 million expansion of Valley View Casino in Valley Center.

San Diego County’s Indian tribes are ushering in another wave of casino expansion and diversification and taking advantage of new technology. They’re paying attention to the playing habits and dining preferences of their patrons and doing more to improve the lives of tribal members. At the same time, the gaming tribes’ annual revenues — roughly pegged at about $1.5 billion — just keep growing.

By the middle of this month, 10 of the 17 Indian tribes in the county will have gambling casinos in full operation — the most of any county in the nation. The latest is the Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueño Indians, which will open the $27 million Santa Ysabel Casino Resort on April 12 in the small East County community.

Although Santa Ysabel will offer only 349 slot machines — miniscule when compared to the larger gaming halls — tribal chairman Johnny Hernandez sees it as a boon for the reservation, which suffers from an 80 percent unemployment rate. “We’re going to use this for educating our kids, for electricity on the reservation, for running water, for new housing and jobs,” says Hernandez.

Santa Ysabel’s opening follows by three months the launching of La Posta Band of Mission Indians’ $20 million casino, the tiniest in the county, in Boulevard. The tribe, which has 28 members, beckons the public with the greeting: “Come to the top of San Diego and be at the peak of your game.” The casino is up a hill, about 25 minutes past Alpine off Interstate 8.

The most ambitious construction this year is taking place in Valley Center, home to the San Pasqual band’s Valley View Casino. Last month the tribe opened a 7,500-square-foot fully enclosed nonsmoking casino with 350 slot machines and a nonsmoking bar as part of a $114 million expansion. On April 13, an additional 54,000 square feet of new casino space will open to the public. That will give Valley View 1,300 slot machines plus a new Players Club, a lounge and a new guest entrance.

In the fall, when all current construction is completed, Valley View will have more than 1,700 slot machines, five new dining locations and more than 300 new employees. To support the added activities the tribe opened a six-story parking garage last November and completed a $3 million warehouse last month.
And it is not finished. Joe Navarro, president and CEO of San Pasqual Development Corp., the tribe’s development arm, says a hotel probably will be added in the future. “It’s something we are considering,” he says. “We believe this market will sustain significant additional growth.”

Navarro, 45, spent 23 years as a San Diego cop before getting involved in his tribe’s gaming activities. Law enforcement work runs in his family. His father retired as a detective after 30 years with the San Diego Police Department. His sister is an officer with the department and his wife retired in 2005 after 17 years as a civilian code enforcement officer.

Valley View Casino encountered financial difficulties after opening in 2001, but the tribe later bought out the contract of the management company that was running the casino and established the development corporation to oversee management and construction. Navarro says the casino is now on firm financial footing.

More Expansion

North County Indian gaming will become even more lucrative if two of San Pasqual’s neighboring tribes — the Pala and Pauma bands of Mission Indians — are successful with proposed expansion projects. The Pala Indians want to enlarge the Pala Casino Resort & Spa on Highway 76 from 181,692 square feet to about 250,000 square feet and increase the number of slot machines from 2,274 to 2,524. Most of the restaurants in the casino would be enlarged.

Casino Pauma’s proposal is far more extravagant. It would include a new 171,000-square-foot casino with 90,600 square feet of gaming area and up to 2,500 slot machines, a 400-room hotel, a 1,500-seat events center, a resort spa with pool and pool bar, a 2,500-seat amphitheater, a 2,000-space parking garage and a new or upgraded wastewater treatment plant.

Artist’s conception of the Golden Acorn Casino and Hotel. Campo Indians expect to start construction in May on a 155-room hotel and an enclosed saltwater swimming pool at the East County reservation.

Both tribes have submitted environmental reports on the expansion proposals to the county.

The Campo Indians are banking on a new hotel, more slots and amenities to attract more people to their Golden Acorn Casino in the mountains of East County. Casino General Manager Don Trimble says construction is to start in mid-May on a 155-room hotel, an enclosed saltwater swimming pool, a 90-seat sports bar and a steak and seafood restaurant. The expansion also includes a four-table poker room and a trading post that will carry Native American crafts. The casino’s executive offices have been moved to modular units outside the building to make room for about 250 more slot machines, which would give it a total of 1,000 machines. The new additions are expected to be finished in August 2008.

Trimble says future expansion might include a parking garage, more hotel rooms and possibly a small theater, an event center and a bowling alley. “We’ve looked at a lot of possibilities to give the public more of an excuse to come here,” he says. “There’s virtually no entertainment up here on the mountain.”

The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation also has hotel plans in the works, but not on its sprawling El Cajon reservation. Nor are these plans connected to its ownership of the U.S. Grant Hotel, which recently reopened after a $50 million renovation. The tribe’s development arm, Sycuan Tribal Development Corp., is partnering with MRW Group to build a 174-room, 100,000-square-foot hotel and a 16,000-square-foot two-story commercial building at the National City marina, a $30 million project that also would include a 4,000-square-foot restaurant. The hotel would be called the Marina Gateway Plaza Hotel.

A 174-room hotel and adjacent commercial building is planned at the National City marina by a partnership of the Sycuan Tribal Development Corp. and San Diego-based developer MRW Group Inc.

Ivar Leetma, chief operating officer for MRW, says groundbreaking on the project will be later this year with completion expected in mid-2008. Although the company has had control of the site since 2003, planning has been slow because of the difficulty of the terrain. “It’s a very complex site,” says Leetma. “There are a lot of environmental issues. We’ve had involvement from numerous agencies, including the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which did a lot of the remediation work. It’s just taken awhile to satisfy everyone’s requirements.”

Leetma says the waste management board performed more than $1 million of site remediation. “Part of the site had been used as a National City dump, legally and illegally,” Leetma says. “There were tires, car batteries, chunks of concrete and burn ash from trash that had been there.”

“I give a lot of credit to Sycuan for having faith in this project and its perseverance and stamina,” adds Leetma, a sentiment shared by his boss, MRW Group founder Mike Weber.

“I’ve got a great arrangement with Sycuan,” Weber says. “They are good partners. Once you garner their trust, they become great friends. They have a good structure for business. When they say they have committed themselves to the project, they mean it.”

Weber, whose grandmother was Catherine “Mama” Ghio, matriarch of the family that launched Anthony’s restaurants, says he wants to be able to secure two adjacent parcels at the National City site that could lead to the development of additional offices and restaurants.

Hot Slots And More

Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside is adding new dining facilities for guests and has established culinary and horticulture programs in association with neighboring colleges.

When casino patrons come across new high-tech slot machines, chances are good they were first tested at Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside. Slot machine manufacturers often arrange to have new machines they develop placed on a “sneak peek” area of Barona’s casino floor for patrons to play. “We encourage people to try them out and give us their opinions,” says Rick Messura, the casino’s assistant general manager for hospitality. That information is turned over to the manufacturer to help determine whether a new machine should go into mass production. “We want to find out whether the slots are any good before we buy 50 or a hundred of ‘em,” says Messura. The casino has 2,000 slot machines with more than 400 titles.

Responding to customers’ requests for more dining choices, Barona took out its bingo games and is renovating the space for a new restaurant offering Italian cuisine, which will open early next year. The restaurant will seat 160 and have a private dining area for 16. An adjacent seafood and oyster bar will be added later. The 24-hour Sage Cafe was renovated and reopened last September with indoor and conservatory seating offering panoramic views of the golf course.

Last year, Barona established an accredited two-year culinary apprenticeship program in partnership with Grossmont College. A special demonstration kitchen patterned after the Culinary Institute of America outside of Napa is being built on the grounds. Messura says about 25 students are enrolled in the program. Most of them are casino employees who want to increase their culinary skills. Barona also started an internship program in horticulture in association with Cuyamaca College and opened its plant nursery to the public.

Viejas Casino in Alpine used to hire machinists as slot machine mechanics, but no longer. Like most of the other large casinos, Viejas got rid of its coin-operated slots and replaced them with ticket-operated machines so technologically advanced that computer technicians are now required to care for them, says Buddy Frank, vice president of slot operations. “We have a staff of 45 folks who are slot technicians — our geek squad,” says Frank. “We have a large IT squad, about 50 or 60 people of the kind you would find at Qualcomm. The director holds a doctorate degree in astronomy and astrophysics.”

New Leadership

Bobby L. Barrett is the new chairman of the Viejas Tribal Council, replacing long-time leader Anthony Pico. Barrett was former vice chairman for three terms. He also is chairman of the California Tribal Business Alliance, an organization formed to protect the tribal government gaming industry.

Although Viejas has not undertaken a major expansion project during the past year, the tribe reached a milestone of sorts when a new tribal chairman was elected in January. Bobby L. Barrett, former vice chairman for three terms, replaced Anthony Pico, who led the tribal council for more than 20 years and was instrumental in most of its major projects — the building of the casino and Viejas Outlet Center, the purchase of Borrego Springs Bank, partnerships with developers on hotel projects in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. and other non-gaming enterprises.

Pico also was instrumental in developing an understanding with the neighboring Ewiiaapaayp (Wee-Ya-Pie) tribe to locate a Ewiiaapaayp casino on Viejas reservation land under terms of a compact the smaller tribe renegotiated in 2004 with Gov. Schwarzenegger. But the project requires congressional approval. Language that would have allowed the “co-location” project was inserted into a larger piece of federal legislation that was defeated last year in the House.

Both tribes, however, are still committed to the project, says Bob Scheid, public relations director for Viejas. Scheid says the tribes want to “take a sentiment check” of new members of Congress to gauge their interest in the proposal before proceeding further with the initiative.

Meanwhile, Barrett is busy not only with the Viejas Tribal Council but with the relatively new California Tribal Business Alliance, an organization formed to protect the tribal government gaming industry. Barrett is its chairman. Member tribes besides Viejas are the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the United Auburn Indian Community. The alliance is basically a lobbying group to provide lawmakers with information and counsel on tribal issues and the gaming industry.

A view of Alpine’s Viejas Casino from the interior of the Viejas Outlet Center across the street. The outlet center, which opened in 1998, has 57 stores.

Viejas executives point to the outlet center across the street from the casino as one example of the tribe’s success in diversification. The outlet center, built in 1998 — seven years after the casino — generates more than $50 million in sales by its 57 stores and collects $4 million a year in sales tax revenue, says Peter Cortese, director of property for the center. An additional $200,000 a year in possessory taxes goes to the county. “Our position has always been to be good neighbors by putting money into the local economy,” says Cortese, who owned the old Sunrise Cafe on Mt. Laguna before joining Viejas Casino as executive chef 13 years ago.

Stores at the outlet center employ about 200 people. Cortese’s staff numbers 22. The center is the only Native American-owned and operated, freestanding retail center in the country.

“There’s not another center like this anywhere else and that’s attributable to the merchants we’ve had all along,” says Cortese. Anchor tenants are Eddie Bauer, Gap, Guess, Liz Claiborne, Nautica, Nike Factory Outlet, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.

Confrontation

Although some of the tribes have encountered local opposition to their gaming enterprises, none has been as pronounced as the uproar in Jamul, where members of Jamul Indian Village have been trying for years to build a casino and hotel on six acres off of State Route 94 in the face of opposition from residents.

Leon Acebedo, tribal chairman, has insisted the tribe has sovereign rights to establish a gaming facility on the land. Jamulians Against the Casino, a citizens group, claims a casino will attract unwanted traffic and crime to the community and will be environmentally damaging.

In an apparent attempt to prepare the land for construction, tribal leaders evicted Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery, who had homes on the property, and demolished their houses, incensing the opposition group, which called a community meeting to discuss possible legal actions. Marcia Spurgeon, spokesperson for Jamulians Against the Casino, says a fund-raiser for Rosales and Toggery will be held on April 15 in Jamul.

Jamul Indian Village reportedly has scaled back its plans, reducing the number of slot machines it wants from 2,000 to 1,000, and switching to the type of machines that do not require a compact with the state — Class II machines that are based on bingo and poker. (Acebedo did not return calls seeking comment).

Randy Baker, chair of the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming at San Diego State University, says the Jamul band probably will end up getting its casino. “The reality is, they have a right to do what they are doing,” he says. “But it will not be an easy go for the band.”