By Jeff Clemetson

Sports celebrities, radio personalities and business and community leaders from across San Diego County joined tribal elders and leaders of the Sycuan band of the Kumeyaay Nation on March 28 to break ground on a new hotel expansion for the Sycuan Casino.

Tribal chairman Cody Martinez introduced the new expansion with a brief history of the casino and what it has brought to Sycuan and the surrounding communities.

“It is with great, great excitement and pride that we are making this investment, not just on behalf of the tribe, but on behalf of our team members and our customers, we are taking Sycuan to the next level,” Martinez said as he revealed a 3-D video rendering of what the new hotel will look like.

Guests at the groundbreaking were also able to take a virtual reality tour of the new facility using VR goggles that immersed them in 360-degree views of the hotel drawings.

Sycuan’s next level is an expansion that includes a 12-story hotel tower with 300 rooms and suites; a full-service spa and fitness center with sauna facilities and exercise equipment; an 11,400-square-foot conference and event center; an expansion of 60,000 square feet of new gaming areas that will house 2,500 new slot machines and 80 table games; new bars and restaurant options, from casual to fine dining; and a resort-style pool area, complete with a lazy river. In total, the new expansion will be around 500,000 square feet.

The $226 million expansion’s grand opening is slated for 2019.

And the casino expansion wasn’t the only news announced at the groundbreaking event.

“So, everybody’s wondering, ‘What about the golf course?’ Well its day is yet to come. There will be a plan for that as well, however we are launching today that we are going back to [the name] Singing Hills Golf Resort at Sycuan,” Martinez said as he revealed new logos for the casino and golf resort.

For more information about Sycuan Casino, visit sycuan.com.

—Reach Jeff Clemetson at [email protected].