Gila River Hotels & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass Expansion

  • Location:

    Chandler, AZ

  • Client:

    Gila River Indian Community

  • Construction Value:

    $143,000,000

  • Delivery Method:

    Construction Manager at Risk

  • Year Completed:

    2021

  • Specialties:

    Casinos, Hospitality

Features & Highlights

  • Saved two months of time on the casino renovation construction schedule
  • Completed an 80-foot-wide jumbo media wall screen within the casino gaming space while occupied
  • Sundt’s self perform concrete team topped off the hotel tower structure ahead of schedule with zero recordable safety incidents
  • Developed a construction phasing plan to stage all of the owner supplied furniture and fixtures within the new ballroom, eliminating the need for off-site storage
Project Overview

Sundt finished work on Gila River Hotel & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass’s expansion. The project scope included construction of a 165,000-square-foot, 11-story tower that connects to the property’s existing hotel. The new 150-foot tower includes 205 guestrooms for a total of 447 guestrooms on the property. Other highlights include rooftop dining and lounge Prime, A Shula’s Steak House and 11ven at Prime, offering spectacular views. Sundt added two resort-style pools and over 25,000 square feet of additional meeting space. Upgrades to the casino floor revamped the area with new carpeting, color palette, lighting fixtures and a LED screen overhanging the floor stretching 80 feet wide and 12 feet tall.

Much of this project was constructed in 2020, but the project team adapted quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic and were able to find the silver lining. Work continued during the casino shutdown, and the project team started work sooner on the pool complex and casino renovations. They also made significant progress with constant access to all areas and saved more than two months of time on the casino renovation construction schedule.

Sundt utilized our BIM 3-D modeling team to design a prefabricated weave of new expansion utilities into the existing central plant with pinpoint precision and no interruption to the operating facilities. As the site was prepared, drone photos validated the construction layout and those digital images were placed in the building information model (BIM). The model moved out to the field with our engineers via Mixed Reality and as construction progressed, Sundt projected reality into the modeling environment with virtual mockups of a guest room, bathroom and hallway using HoloLens.  When there was a change in the design to the eleventh floor, the BIM 3-D modeling team revised the plumbing and HVAC layout, which allowed our self-perform concrete pour to happen on schedule and within budget.

By January 2021, the project had over 240 days with Sundt’s concrete team operating incident-free. The project took multiple precautions to ensure a safe jobsite, such as installing perimeter personal fall protection anchor points in each column. A weekly safety walk with the local Fire department and twice-weekly Health Safety and Environment meetings with a group walk-around on the jobsite were held. One individual from each subcontractor attended these weekly safety meetings to ensure everyone’s involvement and awareness of up-to-date changing safety conditions on the job.

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Contacts

Awards & Accolades

American Concrete Institute, Arizona Chapter, 2023 Exposing the Best in Concrete, Commercial High-Rise Building category

2023