The Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority, an entity of the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, is expanding its land holdings for potential future development near the Northern Quest Resort & Casino, in Airway Heights, bringing its total contiguous holdings there to over 400 acres.

Most recently, KTEA has bought for $2.8 million two parcels of land totaling 23 acres on the west side of Hayford Road, north of and adjacent to the casino complex, says Jim Quigley, managing broker at Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage Kiemle & Hagood Co.

Quigley and Bob Cooke, president of Spokane real estate agency R.H. Cooke & Associates Inc., negotiated the transaction between KTEA and the seller, Anonymous Bidder No. 968 LLC, of Spokane.

Brandon Haugen, development manager with KTEA, says the tribe has no immediate plans for the newly acquired real estate.

“We knew it would be a good piece of land for the tribe,” he says. “We’ve got a lot of land out there, and we’re always considering our options.”

The acquisition is bordered on the north side by the access road to Spokane County Raceway, which is just west of the property.

The main Northern Quest Resort & Casino complex is on 43 acres of land abutting the south edge of the newly acquired property.

The tribe, which is headquartered near the town of Usk, 55 miles north of Spokane, also owns or has in federal trust another nine parcels of land in Airway Heights totaling 337 acres spanning from the south side of the main casino complex to the north side of U.S. 2, Spokane County Assessor’s records show.

Copper Landing, a 216-unit affordable-housing apartment complex located at 10913 W. Sixth, was developed in 2014 on one of those parcels.

The tribe also owns and operates Chevron at Legacy Landing, which it developed on another parcel at the southwest corner of the recently realigned Sprague Avenue-Hayford Road intersection.

Separately, in late 2015, the tribe bought the Spokane Country Club, on Spokane’s North Side, for $3 million and changed the club’s name to Kalispel Golf & Country Club.

KTEA and Northern Quest Resort & Casino employ about 1,500 full-time-equivalent employees in Spokane County.

The recent Airway Heights land acquisition comes at a time when the Spokane Tribe of Indians has started site work for a casino complex on 145 acres of land along U.S. 2, on the western edge of Airway Heights.

The Spokane Tribe, which is headquartered in Wellpinit, nearly 40 miles northwest of Spokane, has said the casino project eventually will include a hotel, a spa, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, retail space, and a tribal cultural center.

The tribe has estimated the cost of the multiphase project will total $400 million, and that it eventually will create 5,100 jobs.