SALAMANCA, N.Y.
Three years after a slumping economy helped stall casino expansions in Niagara Falls and Salamanca, Seneca Gaming Corp. is ready to build again. Seneca leaders have announced the start of new construction on the Seneca Allegany Casino & Hotel in Salamanca, which will have nearly double the number of guest rooms when a new $53 million tower is completed.
Tribe leaders consider the Salamanca casino a "destination" like the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in the Falls, with multiple restaurants and upscale guest rooms. They see the Falls casino, with more than 600 hotel rooms, as having reached its "market sizing" and "are not ready to make any announcements" on potential expansion there.
But the Seneca Allegany Casino & Hotel was always built to be larger, said Jim Wise, senior vice president of marketing for Seneca Gaming, and it will have 413 guest rooms when the project is completed in early 2013. Occupancy rates at the Salamanca location have consistently topped the 95 percent mark, often leading to a shortage of available rooms at peak times and during special events, Seneca leaders said.
Wise believes that the Seneca Allegany Events Center—built in 2008, when coupled with new hotel rooms, could someday host midsize business meetings and conventions. "We couldn't do it at 212, but we can do it at 413 rooms," he said.
