MARQUETTE– The Ojibwa Casino in Marquette celebrated the ground breaking of their $33.5 million expansion project for their gaming hall in Marquette.

“We have a lot of people that are away from here, that are destination bound for this area and we want to be able to provide them with something other than just a casino,” said Don Wren, General Manager of Ojibwa Casinos, “and if you look at the building behind me right now it’s a gaming hall and what we’re about to do is turn this into a multi–functional facility.”

A small crowd gathered to watch the ceremony and celebrated afterwards with food and drinks. Warren Swartz Jr., President of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community said “We’re here gathering everybody we can and coming out and asking them to participate in the ground breaking ceremony.”

The upgrades include doubling the casino space, adding a 75 to 80 room hotel, restaurants and what Wren says will be a state of the art entertainment arena. The expansion should be completed in 2018. Wren said, “We’re giving them a place to come and stay, we’re giving them a place to for conventions, we’re giving them a place for entertainment and we’re putting in a spectacular casino.”

And for some, this is a very important landmark for a long term project. Swartz said “I am most excited to see that we are finally moving forward with the new casino and construction phase is almost here and we’re moving forward and its gonna happen.”