Four Winds Casino South Bend celebrates hotel grand opening

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The new hotel attached to the Four Winds South Bend Casino is officially open.

Wednesday, members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and guests celebrated the official ribbon cutting for the new development, which will employ roughly 1,000 people.

The South Bend location of Four Winds Casinos opened five years ago. Now, the brand new hotel can help attract even more visitors and more economic development to the city.

The new hotel includes the Cedar Spa Edgewater Café, Ribbon Town Conference and Event Center, a third-floor outdoor swimming pool, and 317 rooms, including 83 suites.

"It represents hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, thousands of jobs over the course of construction and operation," said South Bend Mayor James Mueller.

The casino's chief operating officer, Frank Freedman, said Four Winds South Bend surpassed two million visitors last year. Now, with the hotel, they are projecting closer to three million, all coming to spend their money nearby.

"While they're here, they'll do other things, like buy gas, and stop at a convenience store, and stay at a neighboring hotel," Freedman said. "So I think business will beget business."

Freedman would not say exactly how much the hotel cost to build but called it one of the biggest private investments in the area ever.

"Outside of maybe Notre Dame and the amazing things they do there, I believe that the  Pokagon, because I know what the number is, I think that the amount of capital you're looking here is second to none," he said. "I don't know that there was a bigger private project built in this community."

Tribal Chairwoman Rebecca Richards said the project would help the historic Pokagon Band thrive.

"We have a mission to provide healthcare, education, housing, and preservation of our culture, and sustaining our government," she said. "And in order to do that, an economic generator is needed, which was gaming, first."

Freedman said the hotel is at 85-90% occupancy for opening night, it's 100% booked this Saturday.

They're also looking for more employees. If you're interested in getting hired here, follow this link. The link to book a reservation can be found here.