Cherokee Casino Expansion Plans To Be Unveiled

Wednesday, January 10th 2007, 3:54 pm

By: News On 6

A major expansion is in the works at the Cherokee Casino in Catoosa. Casino officials are not releasing the entire plan until Thursday, but the News on 6 has learned it will create 400 new jobs. Despite the boom to the local economy, some are concerned it will also increase traffic in an already crowded area.

News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin says crews are still putting the finishing touches on a new parking garage, designed to ease casino congestion, but an even bigger plan is in the works. A $100-million expansion that will mean new hotel suites, dining and entertainment.

Cherokee Nation Enterprises CEO David Stewart: "Our occupancy rates are in excess of 90-percent at the hotel, and it's just been a wonderful success so we're ready to go to the next level and raise the bar once more and build bigger and better."

The casino plans to make hundreds of new hires and increase payments to local vendors, but is the business outgrowing it's access? Heather Lewin: "Do you feel you have a responsibility when people are backed up on the highway because they're coming to your business?â€ David Stewart: "Well actually not, I mean we're like any other business. We'd be similar to Woodland Hills Mall that gets backed up and Woodland Hills Mall would not be building the roads around their infrastructure."

Still, Stewart says the casino has taken steps to help ease the problem. Nearby truck stops have been shut down in an effort to lessen semi traffic. The land will be donated back to the state for an easement for roadway improvements. As for the highway itself, state officials say the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is responsible for easing the congestion there, not the casino.

ODOT officials say the Cherokee Nation has donated more than $10-million in recent months to the state for other highway projects, but the tribe can't direct road budget money to the Catoosa intersection. David Stewart: "The Cherokee Nation would contribute back throughout the state, it may not be at this interchange, but they would contribute a lot of infrastructure around the state as a lot of the other tribes do in the state."

So who will handle the traffic congestion at Catoosa and when? ODOT is currently drawing up plans to redo the interchange, state Highway 66 and access ramps.

Officials say the high cost project will have to be done in phases and work could begin in 2010.