The Coeur dAlene Tribe, which just completed a $12 million resort hotel and conference-center addition at its bingo-casino complex near Worley, Idaho, now is looking to invest another about $20 million on several other large projects there.


Dave Matheson, CEO for the casino and hotel, says the tribe hopes to start work this spring on both an indoor and an outdoor event arena, with a combined cost of about $10 million, and a recreational-vehicle park thats expected to cost about $2 million. A 72-room, second-phase addition to the newly opened 100-room hotel is expected to get under way next year and probably will cost about $8 million, Matheson says.


Also being envisionedas part of a master plan thats to be unveiled in a three-dimensional model at a March 1 grand opening for the hotel-conference center additionare a theme park plus a passenger train that would shuttle people between Spokane and the Coeur dAlene tribal complex, he says. Cost estimates for those potential projects werent disclosed, but presumably would be substantial.


Separate from those projects, the tribe expects to break ground shortly on a previously announced $7 million, 18-hole golf course that is to be located on wooded land just behind the casino and hotel, which fronts U.S. 95. Gene Bates, a nationally renowned golf course architect, designed the course, and the tribe has hired a prominent Nebraska-based company, called Golf LLC, to build it. Meckel Engineering & Surveying Inc., of Coeur dAlene, already has begun doing some engineering work for the course.


The various projects all are part of an aggressive plan by the tribe to create a destination resort that it hopes will draw visitors from a wide geographic area. They also, however, also raise the stakes for other Inland Northwest tribal casinos that are seeking to retain and attract more visitors and grow their revenue.


Its going to make everybody more competitive, Matheson predicts. Competition should make those who have the heart and fortitude for it just try harder, and the consumers are going to win.


The Kalispel Indian Tribe may not have called the Coeur dAlene Tribes bet, at least in terms of overall capital outlay, but it certainly signaled its eagerness to be a prominent player in Inland Northwest gaming late last year when it opened its $17 million, 54,000-square-foot Northern Quest Casino near Airway Heights. It, too, plans to hold a formal grand opening, although the date will depend on when the tribe receives and installs a player-tracking system it is waiting on, which it plans to call the Camas Club.


Meanwhile, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, seeking to avoid losing some of its customers to the larger casinos located closer to the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area, late last year launched a $1.5 million expansion and remodel of its Chewelah Casino. Formerly called Spokane Indian Bingo & Casino, the renovated gambling facility is located along U.S. 395 about 50 miles north of Spokane and just south of Chewelah. The Spokane Tribe also owns Two Rivers Casino & Resort, near Davenport, Wash., and has been marketing both casinos aggressively in the Spokane area recently.


Few details were available about the theme park or the train line that the Coeur dAlene Tribe envisions developing at its complex, except that the theme park would be similar in scope to Silverwood Theme Park, near Athol, Idaho, and would be located on a large, undeveloped site across U.S. 95 from the hotel and casino. Matheson said at a real estate forum here earlier this week that it also might include a water park.


The tribes planned indoor events center is to be built at the east end of the casino, and the tribe hopes it will attract events such as world-championship boxing and concerts by big-name entertainers. Like the theme park, the outdoor arena would be built on the other side of U.S. 95 from the casino and would be used for events such as rodeos and big powwows.


Tal Fowler, of Lynnwood, Wash.-based Group West Associates, which designed the master plan for the overall development, says the indoor events center and outdoor arena still are in the pre-design stage, so additional details are sketchy.


The tribes planned RV center also is to be located on the other side of U.S. 95 and is expected to be able to accommodate more than 100 RVs. The tribe also is looking at developing a large adjacent parking lot on that side of the highway that would include spaces for up to several thousand vehicles, Fowler says.