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The Roseburg News Review---March 28, 2008
Sue Shaffer, Chairman of the Cow Creek Indians, announced that the $40 million expansion plans for Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino will contribute to making the Seven Feathers Resort a Premier Destination Resort and will add a substantial number of permanent new jobs for Douglas County residents.
By Cara Pallon
What started as a bingo hall in 1992 and has evolved over the years to a Vegas-style casino with all the trimmings will undergo yet another expansion, totaled at $40 million.
By this time in 2009, the South County playground, Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort, will feature 154 new hotel rooms, a day spa and a 250-seat buffet.
The hotel has been operating in excess of 90 percent the past five years, according to Bruce Schoneboom, general manager of Seven Feathers. He said the expansion was spawned by long waits in the current 24-hour restaurant and the fact that the hotel turns away 1,200 reservation phone calls per month.
"We feel very, very good about the additions we are bringing on board within the next six months to a year," he said.
At a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday, Sue Shaffer, chairman of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, said not only will the expansion contribute to building Seven Feathers as a premier destination resort, but the project will also furnish more than 100 jobs.
"The tribal government feels more excited about that than all the wonderful amenities we will have here and do have here," said Shaffer.
Hotel project leaders join members and employees of the Cow Creek tribe in a groundbreaking ceremony at Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino Resort on Thursday
While the directors for each department discussed the extravagant details of the additions, visuals were available on sample boards from one wall to the other.
The colors will be natural— tan, beige and sandy brown, forest green and light turquoise. The renderings of the spa and hotel suites illustrated how the finished product will be "clean and simple, but leave a very strong impression of quality," which is how Gail Wikstrom, vice president of JE Dunn, the general contractor on the job, described the additions.
Travis Hill, director of hospitality operations for the Umpqua Indian Development Corporation, spoke in detail about the spa and hotel suites, which will cost patrons $175 to $225 per night. The hotel suites will be 600 square feet with two 42-inch plasma TVs in each room, a wet bar, minibar and jetted hot tubs.
Hill said the River Rock Spa will be ideal for wedding parties, with a full salon offering manicures, pedicures, body wraps, massages and facials. A wet and dry sauna, a soaking tub with a rain shower and a sunless spray tanning booth top off the creature comforts. "We'll cater to the men as well," he said.
Guests will be welcome to sip champagne in terry cloth robes while they are pampered.
The Gathering Place, a 250-seat buffet restaurant, completes the expansion with choices of Spanish, Italian, American and Asian food, along with salad and dessert islands. The restaurant is scheduled to open sometime this November.
Other highlights include two outdoor courtyards, an expanded video arcade, increased housekeeping facilities and, most important, a glass walkway connecting the hotel to the game floor.
Todd Casper, senior superintendent on the construction site, was out supervising his crew during the ceremony. The 65-person team will increase to 200 people in a couple of months to speed up the work. Casper has 30 years' experience in the industry and was excited to point out the initial stages of the project.
"All the underground plumbing, electrical wires and rebars are already in," he said.