Silverton moves forward with $130 million expansion to casino, resort

louie traub/viewSilverton President Craig Cavileer stands in the construction area of the property, where more restaurants, casino space and a parking garage will be added. Advertisement

When Bass Pro Shops partnered with the Silverton in 2004, the property added the word Lodge to its name. Now it plans on dispensing with that as it moves forward with a $130 million expansion.

The Silverton currently offers 60,000 square feet of gaming, with 1,400 slot machines and 30 table games. It plans to increase its casino and public space by 35,000 square feet and install an additional 800 slot machines, have a high-limit gaming salon, race and sports book and poker lounge. In addition, plans call for a retail shop, three restaurants and a center bar.

An entertainment aspect will be addressed with a lushly landscaped pool area that will cost $15 million. The 3-acre space will consist of five pools, 30 cabanas, five fire pits, three bars and a beach retreat with hot tubs, cold plunges and hammocks.

The pools will fan out from a permanent feature -- a covered stage. The stage will be wired for lighting and sound and the area will accommodate an estimated 2,000 people.

"We thought in terms of entertainment before we thought in terms of the pool," said Craig Cavileer, Silverton's president. "You don't make much money when people are just swimming."

He said it's premature to identify entertainers at this point, but the hotel plans a $150,000 budget to pull in acts the caliber of Tony Bennett, as well acts just hitting the music scene.

Thematic lighting, signage and landscaping will punctuate the new facility.

One thing that won't change is the casino's popular 117,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, which has more than 5,000 sharks, stingrays and tropical fish. Divers hand feed the fish and have microphones to directly answer observers' questions.

Last year was a struggle as Red Rock Resort opened, siphoning off some visitors, Cavileer said, and road work made ingress and egress to Silverton difficult. "Sometimes it was a 20-minute drive just to get off the property," he said.

This year, the Silverton faced an even tougher challenge, he explained. The mortgage crisis, along with other economic factors, Cavileer said, meant doors slammed when it came to funding for the hotel casino's planned $500 million expansion. Instead, Silverton chose to move forward with the portion of the project for which it had already secured financing -- a parking garage with 1,500 spaces (expandable to 4,000 spaces if necessary), an upscale pool area and the expansion of the casino.

"We're not of a mind-set to sit back six months and say, 'Let's see what happens,' " Cavileer said.

The plans that are on hold include a conference center, a spa and a 24-floor hotel tower. That tower will have 360 rooms and include 63 suites ranging in size from 1,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet.

The property, which opened as Boomtown in 1994, still has its original 300 rooms. Those rooms were updated in 2004. That's when 165,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World was added.

When it's all completed, the hotel expects to see its "local traffic to grow, in addition to the tremendous pick up we will see in out-of-town visitors," said Yale Rowe, general manager of the Silverton. "Fair to say, we should see our local guests making up 70 or more percent of our business."

Besides expanding its own offerings, the Silverton is eyeing new ventures to share its parcel, Cavileer said. Its five- to 10-year vision, he said, is to be the only off-Strip property with mixed-use development with multiple branded hotels, shopping, entertainment and possibly a time share element. The hotel currently occupies 35 acres of a 110-acre parcel, so there's plenty of room for new enterprises.

"Our goal is to go from a solid performer in the off-Strip market to a destination resort product that will put us up there with the Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock Resort peer group," Cavileer said.

The Silverton expansion project is expected to be completed by early 2009.

For more information, visit www.silvertoncasino.com.