A new 23-story hotel at the Four Winds Casino in South Bend, Indiana is set to open on Wednesday, March 1. There will be 317 guest rooms in total; some are set up for sleeping while others are set up for entertainment purposes.
Four Winds CEO Frank Friedman gave a group of WNDU local reporters a tour of the hotel. He told them that, while none of the new hotel space will offer gaming regularly, it could dedicate space to the activity from time to time if high-rise high rollers showed up.
Friedman commented: “We can game in those rooms if we choose to. The furniture is portable, so we can pull the furniture out and we can put a couple of blackjack tables up there, and we could have a high-level card game – an invited guests-only type of thing.”
The hotel received its temporary occupancy permit last Friday, which means employees can go inside and start training. The venue is expected to create around 400 new jobs and will be opened to the public on March 1.
The public opening will follow a smaller ‘soft’ opening, which will be held for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.
Potawatomi Tribal Chairwoman Rebecca Richards commented: “We’re just excited to show what we’ve done here with the meeting space, with the hotel rooms, with the restaurant, rooftop pool, the lounge area. It just has a different vibe, and we‘re so excited.”
The hotel will include the Ribbon Town Conference and Event Center, which can seat about 900 guests in a concert setting. The first show has been scheduled for March 18, with a band called Parmalee.
