Ribbon cut for new hotel, opens its doors to more possibilities
By Ken Luchterhand
A brand-new new hotel was unveiled to the public on Valentine’s Day.
After a year and a half of construction, a ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the 123-room Ho-Chunk Gaming – Black River Falls Hotel on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
Groundbreaking for the casino and hotel projects took place on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016.
The ceremony symbolizes the accomplishment of the construction of the five-story hotel along with the newly-opened expanded area in the casino, now holding an additional 400 gaming machines.
Ho-Chunk Gaming - BRF's Executive Manager Greg Garvin said it was the culmination of six years of planning and development. The casino is now employing nearly 400 people, an addition of 50 employees, and now has the po-tential to see up to 4,000 people each day.
"As gaming grew bigger here, we've seen the local community grow as well," Garvin said.
Two projects are yet to be finished, with a projected completion date of April 24. Those projects include a porte cochere, or drive-up entryway canopy, and a veterans memorial walkway.
The new 123-room facility will be used in conjunction with the older 59-room hotel. However, the new hotel is totally nonsmoking, while the third floor of the older hotel is for smoking guests.
At the conclusion of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Miron Construction, the firm that completed the hotel and ca-sino addition, presented a present to the Ho-Chunk Nation.
The gift is a scaled replica of the U.S.S. Mitchell Redcloud Jr., which is on display in the hotel lobby. The ship was named for Redcloud, who was given the Congressional Medal of Honor. Redcloud Jr., a Ho-Chunk, is considered a hero and was killed in action during the Korean War.
Before the actual cutting of the ribbon, a short ceremony was held in the casino bingo hall.
“Through the years we look forward to this day. It actually started quite a few years ago.,” Garvin said. “I actually saw some of the parents here at the Valentine's luncheon with their children. I saw some of you there. A lot of the kids there weren't even born yet when this started. It was really neat sitting across from my daughter when I thought of that. She wasn't even born when we start planning this.
“And that's the kind of vision that comes with this. This all started long before us long before any of us were here. Our ancestors tried their best to pave the way for us, to make a road for us to follow so we could continue on as a people as a nation and these are the fruits of those labors. They're the ones who sacrificed,” Garvin said.
Garvin praised the employees all the extra time they put in, they came in on their days off just to make sure things are done right the hotel staff. They didn't stick to the job description only. Marketing did an outstanding job. They got the rooms ready, run the vacuum cleaners and they set up for the guests the previous night.
“We had some VIPs come in and test the rooms out. They gave us some feedback we’re really grateful for their efforts. They made it happen and it looks like they're making it happen again,” Garvin said.
At the ceremony, Sen. Tammy Baldwin's office was represented, along with Rep. Ron Kind's office, and Wisconsin Secretary of Tourism and former Miss Wisconsin Stephanie Klett.
Klett said that the new facility continues as a major hub of tourism in Jackson County. Last year they saw 700,000 through their doors, contributing to $54 million spent in the county.
The goal of the casino officials is to reach one million visitors, now that the expansions have been completed.
Hill International Project Manager Harry Corken said they had a trial run in the hotel the previous night, just for invited guests.
“We had only two complaints. One is that the guest didn’t know how to use the TV remote and the other com-plaint is that the bed was too high,” Corken said.
Chief Clayton Winneshiek said that the new additions helps to keep cultural traditions going.
“So, when we expand and do these kinds of things to keep going as Ho-Chunk people, not only are we helping the western world (side) of what we do here, but we're helping to continue on with our traditions,” Winneshiek said. “So I want to thank our president, the legislature, and especially Miron Construction for the job. Well done. That addition looks really nice. My prayers my thoughts are with everybody who are here.”
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