A 15-story hotel just off Interstate 10 is about halfway done.

The new hotel is going up next to the Agua Caliente Casino at the corner of Bob Hope Drive and Ramon. NewsChannel 3 takes a closer look at what the hotel will look like and some of the problems it may create.

One year down, one year to go. Another 12 months of hard work and the Coachella Valley’s newest resort hotel be up and running.

“We’ll be a four diamond hotel, which is close to the highest you can get. So it will be the highest level of finishes and fixtures.”

And that means 344 rooms, a 2,000 seat showroom, restaurants and, of course, casinos, all housed in a 15 story building, the tallest in the middle of the Valley.

David Fendrick, chief operating officer of the Agua Calientes, says all of that means more jobs.

“We plan on 300 additional people being hired. That’s everything from entry level maids to senior executives.”

The tribe is hoping a new gaming compact with the state will help make the new resort even more successful. It would mean more slots and more money. But the state assembly shot down the plan at the end of last year.

The governor and the tribe say the new deal would mean as much as 2 billion dollars for the state over three decades.

“Soon we will make our pitch again. We feel pretty hopeful the compact will be ratified by the government.”

Making the battle a little more difficult is some resistance from the city of Rancho Mirage. The city wants more assurances in the deal that the tribe will do more to help with traffic, crime and other issues that will come up with this major resort.

Already, residents voiced concern over the height of the hotel.

“We’re negotiating with them for a lot of mitigating issues, but in terms of height we deal with the County of Riverside.”

It’s a big hotel with a big price tag — 205 million dollars. A gamble for a tribe that’s been a winning streak since opening the two casinos it’s already operating.

The tribe is hoping that the hotel will open in the first few months of next year

Source: www.kesq.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 1:35 am and is filed under Resort. Tags: Casinos Coachella Valley Diamond Hotel Will Open New Hotel Rancho Mirage Resort Resort Hotel restaurant Riverside . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.