Mohegan Sun Resort Casino, Uncasville, CT, USA

In 1998, the Mohegan Sun Casino Resort, owned by the Mohegan tribe of American Indians, decided to embark on a $1bn project to extend its casino in Connecticut in the north-eastern US.

Mohegan Sun's expansion made it the largest private development project on the east coast of North America and one of the biggest casinos in the world. The project was called 'Sunburst' and tripled the size of the existing property to more than 4 million square feet.

MOHEGAN SUN CASINO - PROJECT SUNBURST

In 1998 the company was discussing ways to improve the casino business, and decided to expand the existing one. By 2000 Mohegan Sun were ready to start planning the new development. The new facilities opened in 2002. The Casino of the Earth was the original gaming area and the Casino of the Sky (having its own planetarium and 55ft indoor waterfall) was opened in the 2001 expansion.

The 4.9 million square foot expansion was carried out on a 36-month schedule. Although the overall completion date was April 2002, the Mohegan Arena opened a section at a time throughout the year. In September 2000 Mohegan Sun reached the first significant milestone of the construction schedule when the final steel beam was placed on the external structure of the new Mohegan Arena.

The interior of the arena was completed during the course of 2001. Due to the size and scope of the project each component had its own timeline for construction and its own schedule for completion.

MOHEGAN SUN HOTEL

The expansion included 1,200 guestrooms in a 34-storey luxury hotel tower (opened in 2002) as well as meeting and convention facilities. All the rooms have individually controlled air conditioning and central heating. Disabled facilities were also built into the development.

Importantly for the casino, guests in the hotel have access to 24-hour banking facilities and all the rooms are equipped with free Wi-Fi. The project also includes the north-east's largest ballroom, a 10,000-seat arena, more gaming entertainment, retail and dining options, a full-service fitness centre and a world-class, 20,000ft² spa.

THE CASINO

The additional gaming entertainment makes Mohegan Sun one of the largest casino complexes in the world. A large number of shops and boutiques were opened in a two-storey atrium with around 25,000ft² of retail space, giving a total of 130,000ft².

The 315,000ft² casino has 300 gaming tables, more than 3,200 slot machines and a poker room with 42 tables. The games arranged in the casino include the normal blackjack, craps and roulette along with other attractions such as Caribbean stud poker, keno, baccarat, bingo, casino war roulette, racetrack and money wheel.

The casino racecard allows the patrons to bet on horse and greyhound racing around the world. The resort also features 27 different restaurants, bars and coffee shops (there are 3,000 restaurant seats) and three different entertainment venues. Entertainment venues include the Mohegan Sun Arena, the Cabaret Theatre (350 seats) and the Wolf Den (300 seats).

In addition, there is also a multitude of meeting and conference spaces, including one of the largest ballrooms in the region.

LEAD CONTRACTORS

The Perini Building Company was the lead contractor in the construction of Project Sunburst, responsible for day to day construction operations, logistics and scheduling. In addition to Perini, the design of the Mohegan Sun development was a collaborative effort by several big US firms including Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, architects of Mohegan Sun's exterior, and the Rockwell Group, which created a Mohegan-inspired design for the new gaming space, hotel lobby, retail and dining areas. Hirsch Bedner Associates designed the hotel guest areas, such as the guestrooms and meeting rooms.

Much of the software for managing the facilities came from Progress. The American supplier produced software for management of the patrons and casino operations as well as the more general management of the hotel. Individual elements in the software were supplied by International Game Technology (IGT), Gaming Hospitality Solutions Inc. (GHS) and BMH, Inc.

NEW EXPANSION PLANS

In January 2005 the Mohegan Sun branched out and acquired a new property to add to its portfolio. The casino bought a racetrack for $280m from Penn National Gaming.

The Ponoco Downs racetrack (now called the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs), which is in Plains, Pennsylvania was extensively refurbished and in November 2006 reopened as a slots casino as well as a racetrack.

A new expansion project was announced in November 2006 called 'Project Horizon'. The exapnsion, which will require an investment of some $740m, will open in phases in the period leading up to 2010.

The current casino facilities will be added to the new 'Casino of the Wind', which will have 964 slot machines, 10 gaming tables and 45 'House of Blues' poker tables. The project will also include over 1,000 new hotel rooms of which 300 will be 'House of Blues' themed.

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