In just one week, Detroit's Greektown Casino will open its 400-room hotel after a decade of ups and down on Feb. 13.
Greektown Casino is finishing up the final touches and easing about 250 new employees into their jobs.
After being granted the first installment of a $46 million loan in bankruptcy court to finish the project and pay the contractor, casino spokesman Marvin Beatty said it's a new day in downtown.
"Greektown Casino is number one, alive, we're not going out of business," he said. "Our construction is moving out of the streets and people can feel comfortable about coming back to Greektown once again."
The hotel's completion does a number of things. It allows Greektown to reduce tax payments to the city and state by four percent, which will mean millions for its bottom line this year.
And, it will enable the casino to offer more amenities so it can try and close the competitive gap. Greektown's December numbers were a little more than half of Detroit's MGM Grand Casino.
"We did not have a parking structure, we didn't have a buffet and we didn't have all the things we needed," Beatty said. "We've got those things now."
You would never know Greektown is in bankruptcy court, the casino filed last May, by the business it's doing -- more than $300 million dollars in 2008.
But still, it's taken a decade to fulfill the contract with the city.
"It's been a dream deferred, but we now know that we are coming to a point of reality and Greektown is going to be exactly what we had promised to the community over the years," Beatty said.
New Las Vegas management has been brought in to help manage the process.
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