By By Adam Prestridge
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians spared no expense when designing the Wind Creek Casino &Hotel.
Once completed, the 17-story resort will top $230 million. That price tag will be evident with its variety of plush, state-of-the-art suites, affording guests the same luxuries offered at Vegas hotspots.
The hotel will house 236 rooms including four villas, eight two-bay suites, 30 junior suites and 194 one-bay rooms. For more than six months, construction workers built and rebuilt mock rooms inside a large butler-style building behind GCR Tires on Hwy. 21 near the construction site to ensure each detail, down to the grout used with the tile floor bathrooms was top-notch.
The villa rooms will be located on the second floor of the casino and will include private balconies with a view over the lake and the 2000-seat outdoor amphitheater.
The rooms also feature two-sided fireplaces, cathedral ceilings and special fixtures throughout. The bathrooms include stand up showers surrounded on three sides by glass with top-of-the-line Koehler fixtures including two body showerheads, a regular showerhead and a rain shower in the ceiling inside a chromatherapy panel that is programmed to look like the sky and clouds with audio. Guests can also watch television on flat screens located behind the bathroom mirror.
Proximity readers programmed for guests will also be used for villa floor to keep the area exclusive.
The two-bay suites are double the size of a typical room and include a bedroom, living room and larger bathrooms with upscale fixtures including high-end countertops and two showerheads. The rooms also include a wet bar.
There are two junior suites located on each floor at the corners of the tower. They also include high-end finishes, a sleeping area set aside from a sitting area with a wall mounted flat screen television. The room is also surrounded in glass.
Typical rooms either include a king-size bed or two queen-size beds, a sitting area, a television and tiled bathrooms. Handicap rooms will also be available. Every room in the hotel will include doorbells and digital card readers for entrance.
In order to prepare for such an extensive project, Martin said countless hours were spent in meetings selecting everything from hotel room linens and comforters to the forks and glasses to be used by 24-hour room service attendants. He said management teams visited casinos in Las Vegas and California to get ideas for d/cor.
Angus added that all fixtures were specially ordered for the casino.
Once items were selected, they were ordered in mass and manufacturers across the nation were given deadlines to keep in line with construction.
The resorts will go online in sequence with the casino opening first in January 2009. The hotel will follow in February 2009. Martin said all amenities including the endless pool, large lake, spa, culinary school and “elaborate” landscaping will be complete in June 2009.