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5/8/02

Conference center should hike gaming’s impact to region

By Don Hendershot
Since Harrah’s Casino opened in 1997, Tribal officials have:

• Started a Cultural Resources Division to initiate programs to preserve Cherokee culture, including language programs in elementary schools.
• Built a wastewater treatment plant.
• Opened four community recreation facilities.
• Started a Tribal Legal Division.
• Built an Urgent Care Clinic and Pharmacy.
• Started a transit service for senior citizens and those needing medical care.
• Started the Cherokee Bottled Water business.
• Built a centralized child care facility.
• Started the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, a grant-making organization.

In Progress
• A new youth center
• A new diabetes treatment center



Tribal officials and local business leaders alike are heralding the opening of the new 15-story hotel and conference center adjacent to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.

“A rising tide lifts all ships,” said Lewis Harding, owner of Homestead Inn in Cherokee and a member of the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise board.

The new Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Hotel will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony May 10 with an official grand opening slated for June 7.

The new hotel — WNC’s tallest building west of Asheville — has 252 rooms, including 244 premium rooms, eight luxury suites and 15,000 square feet of convention space with a seating capacity of 1,400. There will be casual dining in the 175-seat Selu Garden Cafe plus the Club Cappuccino coffee bar. Other amenities include Kanati’s gift shop, an indoor pool and an indoor waterfall. The $62 million hotel will be connected to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino via an enclosed sky bridge.

Celebrations will continue in June with a Dignitary Grand Opening scheduled for June 7. Festivities for the Dignitary Grand Opening include a silent auction of commissioned Cherokee art work, a dinner party and a performance by Kenny Rogers.

Economic bonanza

The new hotel and conference center will add to the economic impact experienced on the reservation and in surrounding counties since the opening of the casino in 1997. Since then, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino has become the largest tourism business in the state of North Carolina. It attracts more than 3 million visitors a year.

Brenda Oocumma, chairman of the board of advisors for the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise (TCGE), said the hotel would probably employ about 300. Besides the more than 200 employees hired to staff the hotel, there will be a need for more gaming hosts, valet parkers and other casino employees, she said.

To mitigate fears from local motel/hotel and inn owners about a loss of revenue to the new hotel, Harrah’s agreed to lease at least 7,500 local rooms per year from area accommodations. Harrah’s will, in effect, rent the rooms for its customers and the company will pay the inn and hotel owners. Oocumma said the company had already leased 13,000 over the first quarter of 2002 and was on schedule to lease approximately 60,000 for the year.

Motel owners contacted for this story, like Harding, say they feel the hotel and conference center will not be a threat to their business.

Total salaries wages and benefits paid by Harrah’s have risen from nearly $22.7 million in 1998 to more than $48.2 million in 2001. Harrah’s also has quite an impact on neighboring communities. The company spent more than $8 million for goods and services in surrounding communities in 2001. Some of the communities benefitting included: Bryson City — $95,278; Sylva — $504,993; Franklin — $21,467; Waynesville — $143,036; Whittier $349871; Dillsboro — $87,3328 and Asheville — $1,012,738. Harrah’s spent $6.4 million with Cherokee vendors. The total spent in the state of North Carolina was $15.1 million.

A National Gambling Impact Study conducted in 1999 showed an increase of $845,559 in retail sales in Swain County from the time Harrah’s opened to August ‘98. During the same period, retail sales climbed nearly $6.1 million in Jackson County and almost $2.1 million in Haywood.

Fifty percent of revenue from Harrah’s goes directly to enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians via two annual per capita checks. This year’s June per capita check increased from $2,465 last year to $2,900. Last year’s December check was more than $3,000, and that is also expected to increase this year.

Oocumma said per capita will increase again once revenue starts flowing from the new hotel.

“It’s all part of the same enterprise,” she said.

According to Oocumma, Harrah’s has already begun to book conferences.

“The hotel brings us one step closer to our goal of becoming a resort destination, rather than a tourist town,” Oocumma said.

Revenue from Harrah’s also helps fund tribal programs such as the higher education fund, tribal home improvement fund, housing infrastructure fund, capital improvement fund and the general fund. The general fund provides the operating budget for the tribal government. That operating budget was more than $100 million last year.


Hotel’s Cultural Impact

The EBCI has worked hard to ensure there is a strong Cherokee flavor to the hotel and conference center. The Ani`Yun`wiyahi (Principal People) Committee was created to assure the hotel and conference center are culturally authentic.

Tribal council member Marie Junaluska, from Paintown, is also on the Ani`Yun`wiyahi Committee. She said that with the assistance of Norm Moss of the TCGE and Dennis McElvoy, senior project manager of FoxCor Inc., the committee commissioned local artists to produce a variety of contemporary Cherokee artwork that will be prominently displayed.

Lynne Harlan of Harrah’s said the tribe wanted to foster a cultural experience typical casinos don’t have.

“The sky bridge will transcend from one atmosphere to another.”

She said patrons will have an opportunity to learn about Cherokee history and get a taste of Cherokee culture. And they won’t even have to try.

“It will be almost subliminal,” Harlan said, referring to the extensive collection of artwork and crafts that will be displayed throughout the new facility.

Artwork will include murals, framed art, sculptures, Pendleton blankets, beadwork, crafts and wood carvings. Sequoyah’s syllabry will also be prominently displayed throughout the facility.

McEvoy said the hotel would be more like a repository than a museum. The idea was to create a gallery atmosphere and perhaps have artists on the premise in the future.

“The art will not only enhance the hotel and conference center but it will provide an impressive collection of contemporary Cherokee art which the tribe will own.”