In eastern Washington and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians has reportedly unveiled a plan that is to see its Northern Quest Resort and Casino almost double its room complement via the addition of a second hotel.

According to a report from The Spokesman-Review newspaper, construction on the scheme from the federally-recognized tribe is set to get underway from March and will eventually involve the property near the city of Spokane adding an over 160,000 sq ft wing to the west of its current hotel tower to take its total room allowance up to approximately 440.

Inspired initiative:

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians reportedly explained that the coming 200-room addition to its Northern Quest Resort and Casino should be completed in the early months of 2023 and is to encompass five buildings themed around the concept of a Native American fish weir. The tribe also purportedly detailed that the finished project will be connected to its 20-year-old property by means of a skywalk and feature rooms of a similar style to those in its existing 240-unit hotel.

Optional opportunity:

Nick Pierre serves as General Manager for Northern Quest Resort and Casino and he reportedly declared that the coming expansion should create more than 150 full-time positions in addition to a slew of temporary construction jobs. He moreover purportedly pronounced that the development’s master plan calls for the eventual addition of a 30,000 sq ft conference center that would raise the profile of the Spokane County resort casino even further.

Pierre reportedly told the newspaper…

“While 2020 has been a difficult year for the hospitality industry, we continue to weather the storm and look towards the future. For the past several years we’ve been running at consistently high occupancy in our hotel. While our meetings and events business has taken a big hit in the past eight months, we are confident things will bounce back in the coming months and years to return us to the kind of demand we were seeing in 2019 and early-2020.”

Latest launch:

Phil Haugen, Chief Operating Officer for the Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority, reportedly proclaimed that his organization has engaged Spokane-headquartered Lydig Construction as well as Integrus Architecture and Ankrom Moisan to design and build the coming hotel expansion. He purportedly furthermore pronounced that this follows last year’s addition to Northern Quest Resort and Casino of a luxury RV resort with cottages as well as the more recent premiere of its $26 million Salish Flats apartment community.

Reportedly read a statement from Haugen…

“Since the Kalispel Tribe of Indians opened Northern Quest Resort and Casino in 2000, we have had a history of making calculated investment decisions when others are putting projects on hold. We broke ground on the original hotel in 2008 during the largest recession this country has seen in recent years and are proud to say that this project has proven to be a huge success. This hotel became the foundation for continued resort expansion and created world-class entertainment options for the Spokane region.”