Construction proceeds on schedule:

If you had not driven on Highway 69 through Durant in six months or so, you might be surprised at the size of the building behind the Choctaw Casino.

The new Choctaw Casino Resort Hotel dwarfs the current facility, rising 12 stories into the southeastern Oklahoma sky.

The 24-month construction project has proceeded right on schedule according to Janie Dillard, the Executive Director of Gaming for the Choctaw Nation.

“I can’t say enough about how pleased we are with Flintco Construction and the job they have done for us in building the new facility.” Dillard said. “With a project of this size, you’re going to have hurdles, trials and errors, and we’ve gone through those things, but as the owners, we feel everything has gone really smooth.”

Dillard has stayed on top of the project, getting updates regularly from Flintco and maintaining her knowledge of what’s going on with the construction.

“We have monthly meetings and walk-throughs on everything we do to see how things are going,” she said, “and everything is on time. We’ll complete this thing in February of 2010, right on target with the projected completion date.”

The hotel and new casino floor will total 500,000 square feet, which might seem large for a town the size of Durant, but Dillard and the Choctaw Nation were very careful when deciding the size of the new facility.

“Before we ever started the project, we had a feasibility study done by a company out of Minnesota,” she said. “They researched the area, going out to a 50-mile radius, then a 100-mile radius and on into Dallas, working very closely with us to determine what we needed to build.”

“We had to determine what we needed to offer to bring in the customers from Texas because that’s where 90 percent of our clientele lives and works.”

The hotel will have 330 total rooms, with 192 of those furnished with king-size beds and another 110 rooms classified as double queen with two queen size beds.

The new casino floor will top out at 108,000 square feet, with a staggering 3100 gaming machines, more than most of the casinos in Las Vegas.

Inside the hotel and casino a number of new restaurants will be scattered throughout the facility, all under the direction of a major hospitality company, Delaware North. The Choctaw Nation brought the food and beverage company in to oversee the concessions simply because they wanted professionals to run it.

“We know the gaming industry ... what to do with blackjack and poker and the gaming machines,” Dillard said, “but when it comes to the food venues and the beverages and things like that, we’re not really experts in that field, and we’ve never claimed to be.”

Dillard already has representatives from the company on site, even though the opening is still some seven months away.

“They’re already here working with our staff to develop menus, going out in the area to local restaurants from Mckinney all the way north to see what we need to offer and taking surveys from our clientele to find out what type of foods they prefer,” she said.

Three lounges are also planned for the facility, even though there will be no alcohol served. According to Dillard, Delaware North has secured a beer and wine license for one of the restaurants, and there is a possibility of a full liquor license down the road.

“We will see what our clientele wants and assess that at a later date,” she said.

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Restaurants to be featured at new casino:

The biggest problem for the management team from Delaware North may be working off the extra weight gained during their “research” of area restaurants prior to next year’s opening of the new Choctaw Casino Resort Hotel.

“I’ll probably gain 30 pounds tasting all the food at restaurants within a 50-mile radius of the casino,” said Brian Duffey, general manager of the five new restaurants planned by the tribe.

He and Jackson Chase, manager for the Gaming and Hospitality Division of Delaware North, are in Durant to oversee the food and beverage concession at the casino.

The nationwide company was hired by the Choctaw Nation for their expertise in the field, which they have gained through years of experience running the concessions at all of the national parks, Major League ballparks and stadiums, and casinos, among others.

The five restaurants planned include a steakhouse, a Mexican/ Tex-Mex restaurant, a buffet comparable to those in Vegas, a food court area with four different venues, and a coffee and sandwich shop.

“What we’re going to provide is something that’s never been seen in this area in terms of size, quality, ambience and service,” Duffey said.

The steakhouse will be semi-formal, with beer and wine service, white tablecloths, but will not be exorbitantly priced, offering everything from a chopped beef steak to steak and lobster.

“We’re going to provide great ambience and service at the 1830s Steakhouse, but the menu will be affordable for everyone,” Duffey said. “We knew that we needed to keep the pricing in line with restaurants in the area and the Choctaw Nation was insistent that we do so.”

The company has already developed the menu for the Mexican restaurant, Tomatillo’s, combining authentic Mexican cuisine with Tex-Mex to appeal to as much of the casino’s clientele as possible.

“We wanted the menu to reflect area cuisine, but to also offer some upscale mexican dishes to appeal to a broader base,” Chase said, “so we tried to put the two together when we came up with the menu.”

The Butterfield’s Buffet will be the largest of the five restaurants, with seating for up to 450 people.

Selections will include, among many others, Latin/Mexican, pizza (prepared at the time in its own brick oven), and an Asian “action” station/mongolian grill, with dishes prepared live in front of the customer.

“We believe everything should have some action to it, so that it’s almost like an entertainment experience in getting the food out to the customer,” Duffey said.

The food court will offer plenty of other options, incuding barbecue, a hot dog and hamburger grill, a pizzeria and a “New York” style deli.

A Starbuck’s themed coffee and sandwich shop, Jackpot Java’s, will be similar to the one in the current casino, but will have an expanded menu and will be open 24 hours a day.

“It’s going to be more of a ‘grab-and-go’ concept,” Duffey said, “with fresh salads, fresh and wrapped sandwiches, and fresh pastries of all kinds.”

The idea behind offering so many choices to the customer is an effort to make the new casino and hotel a true resort, allowing customers to come and stay for extended periods, rather than just one night.

“If you go to any of the resorts in the Caribbean, they are set up so the customer has many options to choose from during an extended stay,” Chase said. “We are hoping with all the choices that people from outside the area will want do the same here.”