After finalizing the crucial $1.3 billion-worth purchase on the 31st of May and after celebrating a massive $15 million-worth rebrand several months later, Wind Creek Hospitality is looking forward to a great hotel expansion of its recently purchased Wind Creek Bethlehem facility. Wind Creek Hospitality is the gaming entity of the federally-recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians situated in Alabama.
The tribe is mainly located in Escambia County. It has operated three gaming facilities alongside one hotel located on its reservation land which has enabled massive revenues for welfare and education. Speaking of the tribe’s gaming venues, all of them are operated under its gaming entity Wind Creek Hospitality. Three of Wind Creek Hospitality-owned and operated casinos are located on its reservation land in Alabama including Wind Creek Wetumpka, Wind Creek Montgomery and Wind Creek Atmore.
Wind Creek Hospitality Owned and Operated Facilities
Over the years, the federally-recognized tribe has expanded its entertainment, resort, and gaming business beyond its reservation. Beyond its Alabama-based reservation, the tribe owns stakes in Pensacola Greyhound Park, Mobile Greyhound Park located in Alabama and Creek Entertainment Gretna located in Florida. Moreover, the tribe also owns and operated two casinos and hotels in the Caribbean which operated under the popular Renaissance Hotels brand.
In Nevada, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians finances as well as managed the popular Wa She Shu Casino which is owned by another federally-recognized tribe, Washoe Tribe. Then, in the state of Pennsylvania, the tribe purchased Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem for around $1.3 billion back in March 2018. This sale was officially approved in May of this year and the casino resort was shortly later re-named to Wind Creek Bethlehem.
Wind Creek Bethlehem
The Wind Creek Bethlehem facility is situated at the city’s Bethlehem Works site in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. It opened its doors ten years ago on the 22nd of May 2009. The facility is actually one of five independent casinos which was awarded a mandatory slots license by the state’s regulator, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board back on the 20th of December, 2006. Four years later, the casino facility was finally granted a license to host table games which allowed the venue to expand its offering with one hundred and eighty table games including craps, blackjack, and pokers.
Today, the casino’s gaming floor features over three thousand slot machines, two hundred table games as well as many electronic table games. Several months after the facility was re-named to Wind Creek Bethlehem, its new owner Wind Creek Hospitality of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama, plans for a massive $90 million-worth expansion which as revealed will include adding a brand-new hotel facility adjected to the property’s existing hotel.
As reported, Wind Creek Hospitality has already submitted its expansion plan to the city’s officials. Its official plan for the Wind Creek Bethlehem venue includes adding a twelve-story hotel with two hundred and seventy rooms and adding a 35,000 square feet meeting space adjacent to the already existing Wind Creek Event Center. The owner of the property also plans on adding a 6,500 square feet pool alongside a massive 11,600 square feet spa and an outdoor patio. As revealed by Wind Creek Hospitality’s officials, they hope to start on the expansion project sometime in early 2020 if everything goes as planned.
