Mesquite casino plans $100M renovation, expansion

A Mesquite casino is planning a $100 million renovation and expansion project that its leaders hope will bring the property into its newest era.

Eureka resort-casino, an employee-owned property near Interstate 15, announced work has begun on the first phase of its revitalization, spending about $40 million to renovate the 212-room hotel and 40,285-square-foot casino, Executive Chairman Greg Lee said in an interview Wednesday. Renovation work will extend from the exterior of the property and casino floor to the hotel rooms and restaurant spaces.

“(This is) really time for us to reimagine what we would build today if we were starting from scratch, and what we want our facility to be 30 years hence,” Lee said.

Crews are already working on renovations at the property’s steakhouse, Gregory’s Mesquite Grill, which is expected to be unveiled this summer, CEO Andre Carrier said. Other renovations are expected to be complete by late 2026 or early 2027.

“We want to show the kind of imagination where people leave our property and say, ‘I would like my home to feel more like this,’” Carrier said of the modernized design.

The second phase of Eureka’s expansion — dubbed internally as Eureka 3.0 — involves new development on roughly 35 acres behind the casino. The company wants to build retail, resort condominiums and apartments, including workforce housing, on a mesa overlooking the resort. That land is currently used for Fourth of July fireworks shows.

A timeline for that phase is not yet set. Carrier said he expects to go through land entitlements and planning for the site during the phase one construction.

Lee said the property reinvestment comes at an opportune time for the region. When Lee and his parents opened the casino in 1997, destination gaming in the Arizona-Nevada border town was new and faced steep competition from other recently opened projects. But Mesquite has since grown to a golfing destination, a place for second homes in the desert and as a regular town.

Eureka’s last major renovation project was in 2004, when it doubled in size. Most recently, the company expanded in New Hampshire with the acquisition of a former dog racing track in 2019, now a casino called The Brook.

The company sold to employees in 2015, making it the only employee-owned casino in Nevada. Carrier said the renovation plans are meant to be an investment in the employee base’s future.

“We have an obligation not just to the person who’s 10 years away from retirement and using those (employee stock ownership plan) shares, we also have an obligation to that person who’s 21 years old,” Carrier said. “We’re thinking about our business over the longer term.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.