Mohican North Star Casino shows off expansion

BOWLER - A major renovation of the Mohican North Star Casino is almost complete.

It includes a new hotel with 97 rooms, a business center, coffee shop, 24-hour fitness center and meeting rooms.

"With the new hotel and resort, we're actually able to have a getaway. You have a little touch of Vegas here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin," said Mike Olujic, the casino's general manager.

The hotel will compliment an already expanded gaming area. The final phase of the $100 million renovation project is the construction of a new conference and event center.

Officials with the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe say they are no longer just in the gaming business.

"Take care of our current customers, that's our main goal," said Greg Miller, the tribal vice president. "But how do we attract new customers? At that point, we thought about the event center."

Since 2007, gaming profits are down about 10% for Wisconsin tribes, which is why they have been looking to expand in other business areas.

"We took our money and built a building. We can look at the money we had, we did something with it," said Miller.

The renovation will provide a total of 70 new, full-time jobs. It also provided steady work for hundreds of laborers and contractors.

But there have been road dumps due to the economy.

"We took a stoppage for about 9 months to redesign the facility ... and still obtain the financing," said Olujic.

Thanks to the upgrades, there are some new revenue streams. The Tribe says gaming profits have bounced back some too.

"It's an exciting day. It's kind of our field of dreams," said Miller.

Reported by:  Fox 11 MLUK-TV