Renderings of the second floor and Western Door restaurant give us a first glimpse inside the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino expansion once it's complete. It's the latest expansion since the casino first opened in 2007.
Officials credit the development with improving the entire Cobblestone District. “Go back 10 or 15 years, back when you would come down to this place and you'd kind of be afraid to come down here because you didn't know what was going to happen,” said Seneca Gaming Corporation Chairman, Barry Snyder.
“The economic impact in our estimation is very significant,” explained Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. In fact, once the renovation is complete, the Seneca Nation and Seneca Gaming Corporation estimates it will have invested more than $200 million into the Nation's nine-acre territory.
Brown said the casino has stimulated roughly a half billion dollars in neighboring development. “The stimulus effect has been of this development has been very good, very positive, very healthy for the City of Buffalo,” he said.
Casino sales also benefit Buffalo. According to a 2002 compact agreement, the city gets 25 percent of slot revenue. That equals $5-$7 million a year. Brown said that goes into Buffalo's general fund. “It gives us the ability to help with continuing economic development in the community. It also helps us to balance our budget in the city of Buffalo.”
The expansion will too. It includes more than 300 new slot machines on the ground floor. “We do expect the share to go up and certainly another reason why I'm smiling so broadly,” Brown explained.
