Blue Chip Expansion

Big plans are in store for the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Ind., in the form of a $130 million hotel and entertainment complex addition.

Facility owner Boyd Gaming Corp. announced October 26th the project, which includes a 22-story, 300-room hotel, restaurants, nightspots and a spa, will add to the riverboat casino’s competitive edge in the northern Indiana market.

“Growing customer interest combined with the high room demand make this an incredible opportunity to build our business with an enhanced room product and offer a more complete trade-up opportunity for our expanding market demographic,” Boyd Gaming President/CEO Keith Smith said in a statement.

Construction is expected to begin late winter with completion slated for 2008.

The $170 million Blue Chip, which opened in January, is in the same market as the Pokegon Band of Potawatomi Indians’s Four Winds Casino currently under construction in nearby New Buffalo Township.

Four Winds, managed by Lakes Entertainment Inc., is scheduled to open next August.