First phase of San Manuel Casino expansion to open in July
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A 24-hour restaurant, expanded gaming space with more than 1,300 new slot machines, a high-limit gaming room, and three retail shops are all set to open this July under the first phase of San Manuel Casino's resort expansion project — a development three years in the making.
In preparation, the casino, which is owned by the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians and located in Highland, is launching a recruitment center at Ontario Mills shopping center.
The center will be open six days a week until October. San Manuel is looking to fill more than 2,500 different positions over the next several months.
"COVID-19 has really presented us with a lot of challenges with respect to recruiting that many people in this environment," San Manuel Casino's general manager Peter Arceo told The Desert Sun. "So, we thought outside the box and said, 'Let's bring the recruitment center to one of the busiest malls in the country.'"
Beginning Friday and continuing through the weekend, job seekers can visit the makeshift center to learn about employment opportunities, network with team members and interview for jobs.
Positions are available in food and beverage, cage operations, facilities, slots, table games, housekeeping, groundskeeping and other departments. The center will be open Monday through Saturday moving forward.
San Manuel first broke ground on its casino resort expansion project, with a price tag of $550 million, in July 2018.
Phase two of the project includes the casino's first onsite 17-floor hotel, a spa and an expansive pool deck, which are set to open later this year.
The third and final phase is San Manuel's event venue, tentatively scheduled to start hosting concerts and other events in the first quarter of 2022.
"What we wanted to do was kind of observe and watch how the entertainment industry got restarted," Arceo said.
Casino officials also shared new details about the design of the expansion with The Desert Sun this week.
The expanded gaming space will include two new floors and 40 additional table games. A fifth high-limit gaming room called The Enclave will feature eight table games, 35 slots and 11 bar-top slots.
The Serrano Vista Café, a 24-hour restaurant, will offer "classic American comfort foods with a California twist," according to design details sent to The Desert Sun. Arceo said the casino has been working with farmers in Southern California to put "as many locally grown, organic products on the menu as possible." Some of those offerings include locally sourced produce and organic grass-fed beef from "nearby California ranches."
New retail stores will include a men's luxury store called His; a women's luxury "boutique-style store" called Hers; and a tech and travel accessories store for "the jet-setter crowd, VIP players or busy professionals on the go," called Cache & Carry, according to design details.
Another upscale eatery, which will be located on the casino's second floor, is set to open later this year.
As for phase two designs, the hotel will include 432 rooms, 127 of which are suites. The hotel tower will offer views of the San Bernardino Valley and take architectural inspiration from the San Bernardino Mountains, design details said. An expansive pool deck will have poolside loungers and seven private cabanas.
Over the past year, COVID-19 slowed construction of the hotel portion of the expansion slightly, Arceo said, but the casino component stayed on track. San Manuel Casino reopened last June after closing voluntarily for several months at the start of the pandemic, alongside other tribal casinos in Southern California.
During last year's closure, San Manuel Casino was forced to lay off and furlough a combined 1,100 employees, Chairman Ken Ramirez told The Desert Sun last spring. But several thousand staff members returned upon reopening and roughly 300 newly created positions, like health screener and safety concierge, were given to previously laid-off employees.
Arceo said the current casino expansion will help the tribe and its future generations be "successful and sustainable," but also provide full-time employment opportunities to the surrounding community.
"When we embarked on this expansion project a few years ago, we was always thought, 'This is an investment we're making for the long-term future of the tribe, and for the long-term success of the local community,'" he said.
Amanda Ulrich writes for The Desert Sun as a Report for America corps member. Contact her on Twitter at @AmandaCUlrich.
