Casino Size: 107,000 Square Feet Games Offered: Slots, Video Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Mini Baccarat, Keno, Big Six Wheel, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, Pai Gow Poker, Poker, Bingo Overnight RV Parking: Free/RV Dump: No Special Features: Sports bar. Buffet discount with slot club card. Try an online casino for. You can feel your pulse quicken the moment you walk in the door. 210,000 square feet of excitement – that’s what you will experience on Michigan’s most action packed gaming floor. Let your hot streak begin at Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort. FireKeepers CEO: Casino reopening because 'we are an essential business to the tribe' Monday opening also due to FireKeepers being an essential business in the eyes of the tribe.
| FireKeepers Casino Hotel | |
|---|---|
| Location | Battle Creek, Michigan |
| Address | 11177 East Michigan Ave |
| Opening date | August 5, 2009[1] |
| Total gaming space | 107,000 square feet (9,900 m2) |
| Casino type | Land-based |
| Owner | Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi |
| Renovated in | 2012 (hotel addition) |
FireKeepers Casino Hotel is a 236,000-square-foot (21,900 m2) casino and hotel in Emmett Charter Township, Michigan, between Battle Creek and Marshall. It is owned and operated by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi. Construction began May 7, 2008,[2] and the casino opened to the general public on August 5, 2009.[1] Construction was a joint venture between Shingobee Builders and Clark Construction.[3] The hotel and other additions opened in December 2012.
Description[edit]
The casino has 2,900 state-of-the art slot machines, and 76 table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps, big six and baccarat. It has five restaurants, including a buffet, and also a sports bar and cabaret. The gaming floor occupies 107,000 square feet (9,900 m2), and there are 3,000 parking spaces, 2,080 of them in a covered garage.[4] Casino officials had more than 20,000 applicants for 1,500 positions before opening.[5]
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FireKeepers was developed by Gaming Entertainment Michigan (GEM), a joint venture of gaming operator Full House Resorts and real estate developer Robert Mathewson.[6] From its opening, GEM signed an agreement to manage the casino through August 2016, receiving 26 percent of net income.[6] The Nottawaseppi Huron Band bought out the agreement four years early for $97.5 million, and took over management in May 2012.[7]
The casino advertises via a huge electronic sign on the I-94 freeway, the heavily traveled corridor between Detroit and Chicago. The sign is 50 ft (15 m) tall by 30 ft (9.1 m) wide by 8 ft (2.4 m) deep, and the total structure weighs more than 10 short tons (9,100 kg). The electronic display unit on the sign is 15 ft (4.6 m) tall by 22 ft (6.7 m) wide. It is double sided (there is one unit on each side of the sign), and each side has 43,000 full-color pixels. The sign can display 281 trillion colors, significantly more than the human eye can distinguish. Content is sent via wireless broad band communication from the casino marketing office. The sign uses energy-saving LED technology, and the cost of its energy consumption will be about $17.59 per day. More than 47,000 vehicles travel pass the FireKeepers Casino location daily, and the sign is expected to be seen by more than 66,000 persons each day.
The tribe expanded the complex in 2012, completing construction and opening an eight-story, 243-room hotel in December of that year. The expansion included: a new grand lobby featuring a symbolic light totem, porte cochere, an event center, new restaurant, and smoke-free gaming area.[8]
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The tribe announced that FireKeepers Casino would sponsor the June 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway, now called the FireKeepers Casino 400.
References[edit]
- ^ ab'FireKeepers puts out welcome mat'. Battle Creek Enquirer. August 5, 2009.[dead link]
- ^'Construction Progress Report'. Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi. June 2008. Archived from the original on August 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
- ^'Shingobee Builders Website'. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
- ^FireKeepers press release[permanent dead link]
- ^Hinkley, Justin A. (January 15, 2009). 'Casino starts taking applications Jan. 22'. Battle Creek Enquirer. Retrieved January 15, 2009.[dead link]
- ^ abFull House Resorts. 'Gaming Entertainment Michigan'. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
- ^Sieroty, Chris (February 29, 2012). 'Full House Resorts sells management contact for $97.5 million'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
- ^Jones, Al (December 12, 2012). 'FireKeepers Casino Hotel opening is latest step in long-term planning by Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi'. MLive. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
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Coordinates: 42°17′49″N85°04′30″W / 42.29701°N 85.07493°W
As most of the rest of the state's dine-in restaurants and entertainment venues wait for the state to say they can reopen, some of Michigan's casinos are making plans to open their doors – including Battle Creek's FireKeepers Casino Hotel.
'People will wonder why we are going against the state order. We are not, we are just applying it a little differently,' said FireKeepers CEO Kathy George as the casino was prepping the grounds with new safety measures on Thursday, ahead of the official reopening on Monday.
'The governors of many states have said certain business are essential to their government and to make their world work for them. As you know, any tribe is a sovereign nation and have their own government,' she said. 'Not that we hold any of those decisions against anybody, we have said we are an essential business to the tribe, the tribe needs the resources that are created through FireKeepers for the well being of the entire tribe.'
The Battle Creek casino is opening with several new safety procedures and guidelines to protect its customers and its employees. On Thursday, there were several training sessions going on. Employees had their temperatures taken as they arrived in the building and the casino floor was getting prepped for social distancing. There is a soft opening scheduled for this weekend by invitation only to test safety measures, with the general public allowed in starting at 11 a.m. Monday.
'We are always looking at how to take care of our employees and our guests,' George said. 'So we worked with the health department, the CDC and also some other casinos that have opened up in other parts of the country and asked what worked well, what didn't work well, what can we tweak. So we are at a point where we can keep our employees and our guests healthy and have some fun along the way.'
George added that there was an excitement level from staff and employees to be able to be one of the first venues to reopen and bring some form of normalcy back to Battle Creek.
© Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer Firekeepers Casino implements social distancing practices on Thursday, May 28, 2020 in Battle Creek, Mich. The casino will reopen to the public on Monday with a full series of safety measures, such as taking guest's temperatures upon arrival.
'We are really excited to be able to bring back most of the employees off of furlough and be able to get ready to service the community and keep doing what we do,' George said. 'So the plan is, we are going to do things safely and keep everyone's health in mind. We are ready for everyone to come in and have some fun. I think people are ready to have some fun and I think they need it.'
Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0678. Follow him on Twitter: @billbroderick
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: FireKeepers CEO: Casino reopening because 'we are an essential business to the tribe'