Sharon Hasselhoff presents remodeling plans.
State regulators have approved a plan for a refresh at the Grand Falls Casino in the northwest Iowa town of Larchwood.
Casino general manager Sharon Hasselhoff, says the first phase is an upgrade to the gaming floor. “We anticipate this portion of our remodel to be approximately two million dollars. This is the first phase of our seven-million dollar project,” Hasselhoff says.
She says everything is getting an upgrade. “Carpet, slot bases, chairs, signage, additional space for VIP officers — which will add additional walls on the casino floor, electrical,” she says. Hasselhoff says they will keep the casino open during the remodeling.
“We will plan on doing a lot of the construction that Sunday through Thursday, kind of our slower period, so then it’s back up Friday, Saturday, Sunday, our peak casino timeframe,” Hasselhoff explains. “And then we will do it in sections so that you still have a majority of our casino floor available for our guests. So, when we do the carpet, we will do it in sections so we still have a lot of our gaming space available to guests.”
The plan is to start the work on the gaming floor in September, with completion by the end of the year. Hasselhoff says the timeline depends on the availability of materials. This new project follows some other recent improvements.
“This past year we finished up adding on an additional 66 hotel rooms to our resort, and added on additional RV spaces. I am happy to report that that has gone very well,” Hasselhoff says. Hasselhoff says the RV spaces have been full throughout the week, while the hotel has been full on the weekends and they’ve seen more rooms utilized during the week than in the past.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved the plans for the first phase and Hasselhoff will come back at another time for approval on the second phase.