The Kalispel Tribe of Indians, which operates the expanding Northern Quest Resort & Casino, in Airway Heights, says it expects to add about 400 employees by the end of this year there, mostly to staff an upscale hotel and luxury spa complex it's developing.

Kent Caputo, chief operating officer for the Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority, which oversees the casino and other tribal business ventures, says the hiring is expected to boost the tribe's overall work force at all of its ventures to about 2,000 employees. The casino, located at 100 N. Hayford Road, currently employs about 1,200 people, up about 100 from a year ago, Caputo says.

The new 250-room hotel tower is the centerpiece of a $200 million-plus expansion project. Its construction, expected to be completed by New Year's Eve, and the planned employment ramp-up come at a time when some tribal gaming operations across the country—along with gambling meccas such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City—are seeing declining revenue due to the recession.

The Kalispel Tribe, responding to the tough economic climate, circulated a memo several months ago saying that it was freezing indefinitely the wages and bonuses of its management staff, which Caputo says includes probably 50 to 60 people. He adds, though, that, "It was a precautionary move. We weren't reacting to a budget crisis."

He declines to discuss revenue trends at the casino, but says the tribe hasn't slashed any jobs, doesn't intend to if it can hold costs in check through other means, and is sticking to what it considers a conservative growth strategy.

"The last thing we're going to do is make our budget by laying people off or cutting benefits," Caputo says. Instead, he says, the tribe is simply being more judicious about spending. "We're not going to over-hire. We're not going to overbuild."

He acknowledges that the tribe "certainly would like to see a more robust response" from gaming enthusiasts than what it's seeing right now at the casino, where it just recently completed another phase of the big expansion project. He adds, though, "I think we have built things right to respond to what we think we're going to see" from the economy as it begins to recover.

"We're just bullish on the region," he says.

Northern Quest celebrated its eighth anniversary on Dec. 31 by opening a 50,000-square-foot expansion that included more video lottery machines—the Washington state equivalent of slot machines—and table games, a new casino lounge called Liquid, a high-end cigar lounge, and a souvenir shop. Since then, it also has opened a sports restaurant and lounge called "Q" - The Ultimate Sports Experience, a nightclub, and a food court.

In November, Northern Quest opened a $17 million, 1,400-space parking garage just northwest of the casino. The 10-story hotel and spa complex is being developed south of there, behind the casino, and will connect to both the parking garage and the casino via enclosed walkways.

Project Manager Bill Grubich, a vice president with New Jersey-based Hill International Inc., which is coordinating the expansion project, says the hotel will include all high-end finishes befitting a four-star establishment.

The 10,000-square-foot spa will be on the hotel's ground floor, along with a swimming pool and hot tub. The complex also will include about 5,000 square feet of meeting space, another restaurant, a lobby bar, and a gift shop, all on the second floor, where the hotel lobby and reception desk also will be located. The second-floor walkway connecting the garage to the hotel will be inside a wing that also will include administrative office space.

A "topping-out" party was to be held at the development site late last week to commemorate the milestone of hotel construction having reached its highest point and major concrete work having wrapped up. Grubich says about 240 skilled laborers currently are working on the project, but that number likely will leap dramatically soon—to around 400—as attention turns from erecting the structure itself to finishing each of the guest-room floors.

The current expansion project is designed to accommodate the eventual construction of a second hotel tower and huge landscaped glass atrium, but no tentative timetable has been set for those additional envisioned expansion phases.

Kalispel representatives had said earlier that the climate-controlled atrium would be nine stories tall, encompass 50,000 square feet of space, include a 124-foot glass skylight, and feature streams and waterfalls, winding pathways, lush green plantings, and sculptures.

Caputo said in an interview a year and a half ago that the total cost of expanding the casino ultimately could top $500 million.

Preliminary plans announced a couple of years ago called for the resort to be a 660,000-square-foot "world-class gaming and entertainment center" that would include twin 175-room hotel towers and a 2,300-seat event center, along with some of the amenities now being constructed or that have been completed recently, such as the big parking garage.

The tribe decided last year, though, to revise the construction phases of the project—including building a single, larger hotel tower for now—so that it could open portions of the expansion sooner than it previously had projected, then respond more appropriately to incremental growth in demand.

Kansas City, Mo.-based J.E. Dunn Construction Group Inc. is the general contractor for the hotel project.

The casino sits on a small portion of nearly 300 acres of land the tribe has amassed over the last 12 years and that includes property fronting on both Hayford and U.S. 2.

The Kalispels envision a retail center eventually being developed on land just south of the casino.

Glen Nenema, longtime chairman of the tribe's five-person business council, acknowledges that the tribe faces some challenges as it invests tens of millions of dollars in capital projects and seeks to expand its revenue base during a time of economic upheaval.

"I think we always want to be positive about it, that it will turn out," he says. Yet, he adds, "There are no guarantees."

The casino opened in 2001, and had expanded twice before the latest series of projects. The facility now has more than 1,600 video lottery machines, 37 table games, a large poker room, Keno, and nearly a dozen food, drink, and entertainment venues. It has injected substantial new cash flow into the tribe's nongaming enterprises and provided greatly enhanced employment and educational opportunities for its members.

The tribe has more than 400 members, about a third of whom live on its 4,600-acre reservation near Usk, in Pend Oreille County, about 60 miles northeast of the casino. It operates several health and social-service programs through what's called the Camas Path. Along with the casino, its other business ventures include Petroglyph Printing & Signs and Kalispel Case Line, which makes high-end aluminum cases designed for storing things such as guns, cameras, and electronic equipment and sells Italian-made Cortona brand shotguns.

Of the growing West Plains casino operation that has evolved rapidly into one of the Spokane area's largest employers, Nenema says, "There's days I come out here and can't believe it, to be honest. I'm still amazed at the whole thing."

He says, "The whole intent was to provide jobs for our people," and to generate the revenue needed to preserve the Kalispel culture and language. A language program the tribe offers has taken on added import over the last couple of years as a number of its elders have died, he says.

Unlike big corporate-owned casinos, Nenema and Caputo say, the Kalispels' casino is a means to an end, rather than a profit-focused end unto itself.

"We still want to remain who we are," and use gaming proceeds to help improve lives, Nenema says. "We don't want to get where we expect it," or take that revenue stream for granted.