Catawba Indians reveal when $1 billion North Carolina casino is expected to open
While the main casino complex is expected to open in spring 2027, a single-story 'introductory' casino is on target for a March 2026 opening, tribal officials said during a media tour of the 2.2 million-square-foot project off Interstate 85 exit 5.
'Not only is this facility bringing great jobs to our tribe and our people and creating that generational wealth, it's also bringing that same opportunity to the citizens of Kings Mountain and the citizens of North Carolina,' Catawba Nation Chief Brian Harris said.
The casino complex is the largest current construction project of any kind between New York and Florida, Nory Hazaveh, principal of SOSHNY, the N.Y.-based architect on Two Kings Casino Resort, told The Charlotte Observer at the site.
The introductory casino part of the complex will include 1,300 slot machines, 22 table games, a 40-seat restaurant, an 18-seat bar, sports betting kiosks and a loyalty rewards desk, officials said.
Inside the introductory casino Tuesday, construction officials pointed to steel piping where the ceiling will be, adorned by chandeliers.
The lobby will feature a video mural of the history of the Catawba Nation, along with its pottery and basket making traditions, Trent Troxel, vice president of the Catawba Nation Gaming Authority, said on the tour.
The tribe will close its current single-level casino, which celebrates its fourth anniversary July 1, three months after the introductory casino opens.
Construction of the main casino complex started about a year ago. That includes the introductory casino, three levels of covered parking, a back-of-house level and a top level with the main casino floor and restaurants.
Via an indoor 'skywalk,' the casino complex will attach to a 24-story, 385-room hotel that's also well underway.
The casino complex will have 4,300 slot machines, 100 table games and 11 restaurants, including a steakhouse, an Italian restaurant, a marketplace with six venues, a café and a grab-and-go outlet. Restaurant names will be unveiled closer to the opening, officials said.
The complex also will include a players lounge, 42 elevators and 11 bars, including a center bar and a sports bar.
A 2,700-space parking garage will be built under the main casino floor on a high-rise casino building, and 800 surface parking spaces also will be available.
The project already is employing hundreds of construction workers. Upon completion, the casino resort will employ about 2,200 local residents and citizens of the Catawba Nation, tribal officials said.
With its current single-level, temporary casino, the operation already is providing education opportunities and health care to tribal employees, Troxel told the Observer.
'Most importantly, it's providing jobs,' Troxel said. 'Recently, we hired four or five tribal members. Some of them just came out of college. I didn't have that opportunity to go work for my tribe out of college. But there's opportunities for Catawba college kids now to come work for their nation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From dream home to lawsuits: Customer says contractor stops communication
DES MOINES, Iowa — Levi Johnson and his wife were excited to build their dream home on their father's property, just adjacent to where they currently live south of Panora. 'We initially decided to go with Davis. We felt like, you know, they were great to work with in and out of the office, all the reviews online seemed to be great,' said Johnson. Little did he know that after construction started in November 2024, things would get more difficult. There were issues arising when Johnson asked the contractor, Davis Custom Homes, to see if there can be fixes to some issues caused by some of the work. Another red flag for Johnson was that mechanical liens were being filed by subcontractors working on the property, which means that the subcontractors weren't being paid out for the work they were doing. Johnson decided to hire a private engineer to observe his house under construction, confirming that there were issues the contractor would need to address. More charges filed against ISU student accused of sexually exploiting minors on social media 'We did present the information from the private engineer, we had a sit down meeting in their office, we did that twice I believe. We were both on a dead head, we were not willing to compromise on that, as well they were not willing to fork up the money needed to fix the issues. I believed that is what stemmed them to reach out to their attorney, was they felt like they didn't need to do anything,' said Johnson. After working through the legal channels, Johnson hit a dead end as Davis Custom Homes legal team would not be hearing any future meetings. Johnson and a group of around 20 homeowners met with the Iowa Attorney General's Office on Wednesday to give the office information regarding each specific situation. WHO 13 News went to Davis Custom Homes property on Wednesday. The property landlord shared that the tenants of the building had paid July's rent, but he had not seen them since Monday, July 6. A contractor was on the scene as well, he told WHO 13 News that he was out $500,000 from his work with Davis Custom Homes. He just got back from vacation on Monday, July 14 and the office was closed and no one was around, and he couldn't get in contact with the owners of Davis Custom Homes. Iowa News: I Scream, You Scream, Roger Riley reports on Iowa Ice Cream PHOTOS: Some central Iowans experienced flooding following weekend showers Another family's dream home turns into 'nightmare' after contractor stops communication One in custody following shooting incident in Fort Dodge One dead after car rolls several times in Des Moines County crash Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Coastal Commission to decide future of unique cottage on coastal SLO County bluff
The battle isn't over about whether to save a tiny, 1965 oceanfront cottage in Cambria or replace it with a much larger structure. Two Cambria residents have appealed to the California Coastal Commission a county permit that would allow the removal of the distinctive 1,170-square foot cottage designed and built by noted designer Warren Leopold and, subsequently, for construction to proceed on a 2,419-square-foot replacement structure. The Commission will consider the appeals in August, Devon Jackson, a Commission coastal planner, told The Tribune on Monday. Those meetings will be held Aug. 13-15 in Calabasas. County supervisors voted 4-1 in June to deny similar appeals against the 2675 Sherwood Drive project and Peter and Beata Przybyslawski's plans for a new, three-bedroom, three-bath home on their shoreline property. The supervisors' vote also included removing the property's current vacation rental zoning clearance because of the close proximity of another vacation rental unit. Christina Galloway, on behalf of the North Coast Advisory Council, and Cambria resident Jeffrey Lentz opted to continue pursuing their appeals, despite an unusual email Jackson sent to them July 2. He asked if they'd be willing to pull their objections because staff is recommending that commissioners 'find no substantial issue' with the project and, in effect, deny the appeals. 'It is your right to move forward with the appeal process, but we believe there is a very low chance that the commissioners will wish to find substantial issue on a project of this nature,' Jackson wrote. 'As such, I am respectfully requesting that each of you withdraw your appeal so that we can avoid the lengthy and time-consuming process of bringing this project to hearing,' he added. There are dueling hopes for North Coast property When the original appeals were filed, their primary emphasis was to minimize environmental impacts, protect the property's scenic views for the public and help to preserve the community's character, according to Jeff Kwasny, who chairs the council's land-use committee. He said the county's interpretation of protections for the North Coast shoreline area, as outlined in the item's agenda listing, 'just considered the sand and rock and not the bluff.' 'We have policy … that says otherwise, and includes the bluff and visual resources,' he said. Property owners Peter and Beata Przybyslawski of Lake Tahoe wanted to use the new, 2,419-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath residence they're planning on the site as a vacation rental, just as they had the existing one-bedroom, one-bath one. Now according to the county supervisors' decision, that's not possible, and it's not known if the Przybyslawskis will want to continue to pursue their demolition and rebuild plans. Having a vacation rental there wasn't their only reason for wanting to put a different house on their oceanfront property that's about 200 feet from the entrance to the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, Bill Isaman of San Luis Obispo, their architect and spokesman, told The Tribune in June. 'They love the property and want to live there,' he said. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Medicaid cuts could define midterms
Medicaid is set to become a key issue in the battle over control of Congress in next year's midterm elections now that President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' has passed. Congress passed the largest Medicaid cuts in the program's 60-year history through the GOP's megabill right before the July 4 holiday, a $1 trillion reduction projected to push more than 12 million low-income individuals off their health insurance over the next decade. Republicans argue the moves are necessary to address waste and fraud in the program, ensuring 'able-bodied' adults aren't taking advantage of the system. But with 1 in 5 Americans enrolled in Medicaid, Democrats hope this massive slash spells political poison for Republicans in the midterms. GOP holdouts voiced concerns along these lines leading up to the vote. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted against the bill and won't be seeking reelection, reportedly told Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that the Medicaid cuts could cost Republicans control of both the House and Senate. Heading into the 2026 election cycle, Republicans will have to get ahead of Democratic messaging on health coverage. 'The key here for Republicans going into the midterms is to clearly go on offense and define the debate around Medicaid in particular today — not tomorrow, not next month, not in the fall, not next year. They need to do it in a unified and aggressive way today, because Americans' public opinion is on [the] Republican side,' Kristin Davison, partner at the GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies, told The Hill. She pointed to polling that showed most Americans — 62 percent, according to polling from earlier this year — are in favor of measures such as adding work requirements to Medicaid. The legislation makes a wide range of changes to the program, though the Senate's parliamentarian struck some more extensive ones for being noncompliant with Senate rules. The law is set to require Medicare beneficiaries to prove for the first time they are working or in school at least 80 hours per month — equal to part-time employment — to keep their health insurance. That will take effect Dec. 31, 2026, just after the midterms. It will also require more frequent eligibility checks and Medicaid recipients living above the poverty line to pay out-of-pocket copays for most services, including doctor visits and lab tests. Throughout the bill's legislative process, Democrats have been quick to go after Republicans over the changes in Medicaid, as they have long warned that Trump and the GOP would seek to make cuts if they took power in Washington. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) gave a preview of what Democratic messaging could look like in his record-breaking House floor speech Thursday. 'Almost $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. This runs directly contrary to what President Trump indicated in January, which was that he was going to love and cherish Medicaid. Nothing about this bill loves and cherishes Medicaid,' Jeffries said. 'It guts Medicaid in a way that it's going to hurt children, hurt families, hurt seniors, hurt people with disabilities, hurt women, hurt everyday Americans.' Senate Democrats' campaign arm rolled out an ad in May, pulling together various news clips discussing the effects of potential Medicaid cuts. House Majority Forward, a PAC that works to elect Democrats to the House, launched digital ads at the same time in 26 congressional districts led by potentially vulnerable Republicans who will be targeted next year. The ads argued the Republicans voted to increase grocery costs and cut health care. The Democratic National Committee highlighted effects of Medicaid cuts across the country in a release in late June, accusing the party of playing 'political games with Americans' lives.' The House Democrats' campaign arm said a vote for the bill would be the 'defining contrast' of the midterms and cost the GOP its majority. The organization also appears likely to hammer lawmakers for alleged hypocrisy, pointing in a memo to a letter that a dozen GOP lawmakers signed in April saying they wouldn't support big cuts to Medicaid before they eventually supported the bill Thursday. 'Let's be clear — vulnerable Republicans have admitted time and time again that even they know their bill would obliterate access to health care, raise costs, cut jobs, threaten rural hospitals, and lead to families going hungry, but they voted to pass it anyway,' Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said in a statement. 'The DCCC will make sure every battleground voter knows how vulnerable House Republicans abandoned them by passing the most unpopular piece of legislation in modern American history, and we're going to take back the House majority because of it,' she said. Democratic consultant Martha McKenna, who previously served as political director for Senate Democrats' campaign arm, said the party must communicate to voters that the legislation will affect everyone's health care costs regardless of whether they're on Medicare. 'People who are on Medicaid will still show up in hospitals and ERs, and they're still going to get sick. It's just going to drive the cost of health care up for everyone,' she said, arguing this will ensure that Republican arguments that the moves were necessary will fail. The impacts on health coverage are likely to be immense. Roughly 40 percent of U.S. births are paid for by Medicaid, and among children under 6 years old, more than 40 percent are either covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to estimates from the National Rural Health Association, rural hospitals will lose $70 billion over the next 10 years as a result of the law, losing 21 cents from every Medicaid dollar they receive. A June KFF poll found that 74 percent of U.S. adults viewed the legislation unfavorably when informed it would increase the number of uninsured people by 10 million, and 79 percent had the same view when informed it would decrease funding for local hospitals. Polling from The Washington Post found that roughly a third of Americans, including 42 percent of independents, had no opinion on the reconciliation package. Whichever party has the most convincing campaign message stands to claim this undecided cohort. A GOP operative acknowledged the bill gives Democrats a 'silver bullet' in the upcoming elections but argued Republicans will be able to 'neutralize' Medicaid concerns with the numerous other provisions passed in the legislation. 'If you break it down into all these provisions that we're actually pushing for with the legislation, you know, I do think it's a win for us,' the operative told The Hill. 'We can at least level the playing field, right? If that makes sense, where you can kind of neutralize the issue by talking about all those key provisions that we have.' These various Medicaid provisions, most notably the work requirements, won't take effect immediately, which will present an uphill battle for Democrats. Democrats acknowledged it may pose an extra challenge but expressed confidence they'll still be able to communicate the pending changes to voters. One Democratic strategist who works on House races cited the 2010 and 2018 midterms, during which legislation either not yet in effect or that failed dominated the cycle. They noted that many provisions of the Affordable Care Act weren't yet in effect by November 2010, but Democrats still sustained major losses because of its unpopularity at the time. And though congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law in 2018, they argued that year's cycle was still about GOP efforts to repeal it, for which the party suffered. 'There's an argument to be made here that if voters believe, and it is true that the unpopular bill is really bad for them, it doesn't matter if it's going to be bad for them tomorrow or next year,' the strategist said. 'If they believe it is bad for them, they will act on that opinion.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
