Shades of Las Vegas

New Mexico Business Journal, August, 2000

There, hard by I-25 and Tramway on the Sandia Reservation, is rising a new casino. That, in itself, is no great news these days, but the price tag sure is. The 200,000 sq. ft. building is expected to cost $60 million, and that's part of the tribe's $80 million project. The facility, which is expected to be completed around the middle of 2001, will have three restaurants, an entertainment lounge, a bingo and meeting facility, an amphitheater and--get this--an underground parking garage for 880 vehicles.

The Sandia casino is quite unlike those you find in Vegas: it will have windows! Actually, a floor-to-ceiling glass wall looking toward the Sandias is in the plan. McCarthy Co. is the general contractor. The Phoenix-based company is also building, with Albuquerque's Gerald Martin, Ltd., the $41 million Hyatt Regency Tamaya resort in Bernalillo on Santa Ana Pueblo land. We note that McCarthy has offices in nine cities, but none in Albuquerque. About time?