PINE BLUFF, Ark. — People from the Pine Bluff community, officials from the Saracen Resort Casino, and construction workers all came together on Tuesday to celebrate as the casino’s 14-story hotel came one step closer to completion.
The event in question was a topping-off ceremony in which the final beam was placed on top of the hotel, marking its vertical completion.
“That's the final major exterior construction,” said Wena Supernaw, Business Committee Chair for casino owners Quapaw Nation. “And by that going up, it's going to give us the opportunity to go inside and start working on the stuff that’s not so easy to see, and it takes a lot of time and care to be able to do that.”
Carlton Saffa with the Saracen Casino Resort touted the ceremony as an important checkpoint in the hotel’s progress.
“We've said for a long time, that Saracen is a place to visit and one heck of a destination,” he said. "But now you can see it from miles away. So about 200 feet in the air, you'll see the top beam of this property, which means we've reached the pinnacle of the construction of the skeleton of the building.”
After the ceremony, hundreds of the construction workers on the project were thanked with a meal. Saffa said it’s thanks to their hard work that the hotel is scheduled to be done in the fall of 2025.
He explained how the hotel's completion will take the facility to the next level.
"I'm proud that about 70% of our employees live in Jefferson County,” Saffa said. "But about 70% of our customers come from Little Rock. When you build a hotel, those folks who come from out of town, they stay and they stay overnight, and they spend more time with you."
For Supernaw, it’s all about the locals. The men and women who have supported this project from the beginning many of whom were there on Tuesday, including Mayor Shirley Washington.
"Jefferson County has been so welcoming and supportive,” Supernaw said. “Between the Mayor, the judge, state representatives, and the city council, they have been so kind and welcoming to us."
What they’ve gotten in return is a project that Saffa has been making some lofty promises about.
“We know that we can now become an attractive market for places like Dallas,” Saffa said. “Texas becomes a very active market for us, and really all of the mid-South. What we've built here is not the biggest casino in the south, but unquestionably will be the nicest casino in the south.”
The hotel will also come with an event center, which Supernaw said will also open next fall.