A small Washington tribe’s push for prosperity is taking shape along Interstate 5 just north of Portland. There, a $510 million casino is weeks away from an expected onslaught of card players and slots enthusiasts.
The once-quiet spot 16 miles from the Interstate Bridge has been buzzing since September 2015 as the much-debated Ilani Casino Resort began materializing near tiny La Center. Casino operators are hiring 1,000-plus workers to manage the facility and staff the 100,000-square-foot gaming room round-the-clock. Even the nearby Exit 16 interchange, now in a state of heavy construction, will have a new look, courtesy of $32 million in casino-funded improvements.
The official opening date is still up in the air. Operators are aiming for mid-April. When it’s completed, it will be the closest major gambling venue for many Portland metro residents. In a time when slow-growing casino spending still hasn’t returned to pre-recession levels, Ilani is projected by some to sap at least $200 million a year collectively from the Oregon Lottery, other tribal casinos, and nearby card rooms.
The Cowlitz Indian Tribe had to overcome numerous legal and regulatory hurdles to get this far, including having to secure its tribal status. Even now, opponents are still hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will help derail it.
The tribe sees the Ilani – which means “sing” in the Cowlitz language – as the key to a long-overdue reversal of fortunes for its 4,100 members, who are scattered mostly across western Washington. William Iyall, the Cowlitz chairman, says it is a dream come true for a tribe that won federal recognition only 17 years ago.
“It’s our chance to prosper now,” said Iyall, a civil engineer who has led the tribe since 2008. “It’s just a great feeling.”
A “welcome environment”
With 368,000-square feet of space for gaming, dining, and entertainment, Ilani will offer amenities that should dazzle the projected 4.5 million visitors each year. Its 100,000-square-foot gaming floor – slightly larger than the one at Spirit Mountain Casino 90 miles southwest of Portland – will house 2,500 slot machines, 75 gaming tables, 60 high-limit slot machines, and five high-limit tables. More than 15 restaurants, bars, and shops will surround the gaming hub.
Later this year, the casino will open a 2,500-seat venue for entertainment and large gatherings. Longer-term plans call for a hotel on the reservation.
A walking trail, open to the public, will surround the complex. Outside the vast building, parking lots will accommodate 3,000 vehicles.
Many of those vehicles undoubtedly will have Oregon license plates. Last year, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, operators of Spirit Mountain Casino estimated it could lose $100 million a year with the opening of the Cowlitz resort. The casino did not respond to requests for comment. And Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis in a November report projected a $110 million a year drop in video lottery sales tied to the Ilani. That represents a $72 million decline in tax revenue – money that would otherwise go to schools, economic development and state parks.
Those numbers could create public relations problems for Ilani’s effort to lure Oregonians who might want to keep their spending and tax dollars at home. But Iyall counters that Oregon benefits from the tax dollars paid by its contractors – including Portland-based Swinterton Builders, the casino’s prime contractor – and future employees who live in the state. Also, the tribe has committed to contributing 2 percent of its net proceeds to community groups within the greater Portland metro area, which Iyall said exceeds industry standards for charitable giving.
“The bottom line is that our project’s contribution to the area far exceeds any lost revenue for tax base consideration,” he said.
Battles turn costly
For years the Cowlitz fought off opposition from businesses, the Clark County Board of Commissioners, and even U.S. Rep Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Camas Republican. Though resistance has eased, the owners of La Center card rooms have continued their challenge of the federal designation of the tribal reservation.
The fight isn’t over. Card room owners and other local opponents have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Department of Justice has until today (February 17) to file a response. Eric Miller, an attorney for Perkin Coie in Seattle representing the opposition group Citizens Against Reservation Shopping, said he expects the federal attorneys to ask for an extension.
The battles have been costly for the tribe. A lower-than-expected bond rating increased its borrowing costs. Also, the Cowlitz spent $15 million to build an on-site wastewater reclamation plant.
Iyall, the chairman, said the tribe worked to stay positive and focused. “It would have been great to have gotten past the litigation, but we weren’t able to do that,” he said.
Unique partnership
The Bureau of Indian Affairs designated the 152 acres on the outskirts of Ridgefield as reservation land in 2010. Four years later, the Cowlitz entered into a unique partnership with the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribe, which operates the Mohegan Sun casino complex in Connecticut and a casino in Pennsylvania. The Salishan-Mohegan LLC partnership calls for an operational partnership initially, with the goal of putting the Cowlitz in full control after seven years.
Kara Fox-LaRose, the casino’s president and general manager, spent 21 years working for the Mohegan Tribe before moving west. She said the Mohegan offered its expertise to the Cowlitz because “they have a mission to spread sustainable growth to other tribes.”
Ilani now must work down its debt while building a customer base in a gaming market that is experiencing only moderate growth, said Robert Whalen, a consultant for ECONorthwest who has analyzed the casino industry for the Oregon Tribal Gaming Alliance.
Whalen’s 2015 report for the alliance noted that tribal casino gaming revenues peaked at $507 million in 2007, falling to $467 million in 2011 and growing only moderately since. Add Ilani to the mix, he said, and “the pie gets bigger, but it’s going to be divided more. Somebody maybe will gamble more often but spend a little less each time.”
Iyall said he’s not concerned about the region’s ability to absorb a new casino. The “Puget Sound has about six casinos within 50 miles of each other, and all of them [are] doing a good job,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, Iyall will savor the moment in April when his tribe finally gains the economic footing that other tribes have reached thanks to the economic engine of casino gambling.
“Over 160 years ago, we were forced off our land at gunpoint and sometimes simply murdered,” he said. With no compensation and no land, he said, the Cowlitz had no base for economic activities. The casino, he said, “gives us footing with other tribes.”
-Gordon Oliver
Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive
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