Sycuan Tribal Chairman Danny Tucker (left) and Mike Weber, president of MRW Group, are leading efforts to revitalize National City’s bayfront. MRW and Sycuan Tribal Development Corp. are partnering to build the $30 million Marina Gateway Plaza Hotel at Bay Marina Drive.

Despite a softening economy, job layoffs and criticism from some of their neighbors, several Indian gaming tribes in the county are planning more than a billion dollars worth of new construction projects.

The plans include an $800 million resort and casino development at the Viejas tribal land in Alpine, an $85 million hotel for high-rollers at Valley View Casino in Valley Center and a $30 million hotel, restaurant and commercial center on National City’s bayfront financed by the Sycuan band.

In North County, the Pala tribe has started construction of a parking structure that is part of a $100 million expansion of the Pala Casino & Resort.

"The recession shouldn’t be an issue, assuming the tribes did their market research," says Randy Baker, chair of San Diego State’s Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming. "It will take them a considerable amount of time to develop their projects." In that time economic conditions will probably improve, he adds.

Viejas Tribal Chairman Bobby Barrett says the $800 million expansion of Viejas Casino, which will include a second casino and a hotel, is the largest project undertaken by the tribe since 1991.

At Viejas, which laid off an undisclosed number of casino workers earlier this year, the tribe is planning its most ambitious expansion program since it opened the Viejas Casino & Turf Club in 1991. Slated for completion in 2012, construction will include a second casino, a hotel with spa, retail outlets and restaurants, a new parking structure, movie theater and a co-generation power plant.

Viejas Enterprises, the tribe’s business arm, selected internationally known Marnell Corrao Associates, designer of some of the largest casinos and resorts in the world, to design the Viejas Hotel & Casino Resort.

"Environmental studies have already started and we’re looking at between 18 to 24 months before we can break ground," says Bobby Barrett, serving his second year as Viejas tribal chairman.

As for the criticism some of the tribes have attracted over their development plans, Barrett says he believes the majority of residents of the county still support tribal government gaming. "But I also believe it’s the tribes’ responsibility to offer gaming in a way that the public supports and be responsible with the revenue that we generate."

Sycuan’s Hotel On The Bay

Five years after it purchased and renovated Downtown’s U.S. Grant Hotel, Sycuan Tribal Development Corp. broke ground last month with partner MRW Group on Marina Gateway Plaza, a bayfront development in National City that will contain a 100,000-square-foot Best Western hotel, restaurant and commercial space. The 6.3-acre site at Bay Marina Drive is neighbor to acres of marshland and National City’s heavy maritime industry.

National City Mayor Ron Morrison describes the Sycuan-MRW project as the "crown jewel" of efforts to revitalize the bayfront.

Sycuan Tribal Chairman Danny Tucker says the construction, slated for completion in 2009, will generate about 350 temporary jobs and 100 permanent jobs and bring more than $600,000 in property and transient occupancy taxes a year to the city.

Ground was broken last month for the Marina Gateway Plaza Hotel at National City’s bayfront.

Sycuan formed the development partnership with MRW in 2003 (the same year it took ownership of the Grant hotel), but it has taken this long to

clear the site of environmental impediments such as old tires, car batteries, chunks of concrete and burn ash and to obtain city and Coastal Commission permissions.

To date, Sycuan, which operates a casino in rural El Cajon, has purchased Singing Hills Country Club, the Grant hotel and is an investor in Hotel Solamar in Downtown.

San Pasqual Invites High Rollers

Joe Navarro, president and CEO of San Pasqual Casino Development Corp., which operates Valley View Casino, says construction is expected to start in May or June on a 12-story, 161-room hotel. Opening would be in the first quarter of 2010. The hotel will offer free accommodations to the casino’s high rollers or, as Navarro calls them, "our elite guests." He describes them as people who visit the casino frequently and spend a lot of money. He figures occupancy will range from 90 percent to 95 percent.

The hotel will contain 141 standard suites of 520 square feet while 18 will be 1,000-square-foot luxury suites. A single penthouse suite will offer 2,000 square feet to the gambler.

The $85 million hotel envisioned by the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians would be reserved for high rollers at Valley View Casino.

Oliver Smith, chairman of the Valley Center Community Planning Council, takes issue with the hotel. Speaking as a private citizen, he says, the hotel will generate considerable noise, traffic and light pollution. Navarro insists that any detrimental environmental effects from the project will be adequately mitigated.

Beyond the hotel issue, Valley View is involved in litigation with the state on the number of Nevada-style slot machines its casino is allowed to have. Navarro says the casino has 1,572 of these types of machines, or 428 fewer than the 2,000 allowed by its compact with the state. The state’s position is that it has issued all the slot licenses that are legally allowed and can issue no more.

The lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year by a federal judge but an appeal has been filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Pala Casino Expansion

The Pala Band of Mission Indians estimates its $100 million expansion and renovation program at Pala Casino & Resort will be completed by mid-2009. The tribe will add about 30,000 square feet to the casino and entertainment floor, add 400 covered parking spaces and upgrade many of its 507 hotel rooms. The tribe also has begun construction of a state-of-the-art tertiary wastewater treatment facility.

Many of the improvements will be in Pala’s dining areas. Sue Welp, vice president of guest development, says a new Mexican restaurant named Amigo’s and a sushi sake bar will be added. "We are relocating and building a new deli named Promenade Deli and are relocating and building a new coffee outlet named Papa’s Coffee Cafe," Welp says. "We are expanding the Oak Room and adding a lounge to it and are expanding the Pala Café." The most significant change, says Welp, will be the expansion of the casino buffet into a 600-seat, 20,000-square-foot buffet named Choices.

Welp says the tribe does not know yet whether new slot machines will be added for the expansion.

Pauma Plans

Last year, the Pauma Band of Mission Indians filed an environmental assessment on a proposal to build a new casino with up to 2,500 slot machines, a 23-story, 384-room hotel, a 1,500-seat multi-purpose events center, a 1,500-space parking garage and expansion of its wastewater treatment plant. However, no construction has started. "The Pauma band is still avidly working through the process of mitigating community concerns and responding to public comments regarding our casino expansion and hotel resort development," says Tribal Chairman Chris Devers in a prepared statement. "We look forward to completing this process in the near future."

Harrah’s Rincon Casino

The Rincon Luiseño Band of Mission Indians completed a remodeling of the Garden Tower at Harrah’s Rincon Casino earlier this year. The project replaced the original lobby and office area with three additional rooms, bringing the room count for the Garden Tower to 203 and the total room count for the resort to 656.