Casino Del Sol Vahi Taa'am - 2023 News Archive

Tucson's downtown casino project clears building site

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe is preparing the building site for a new casino near Grant and Interstate 10. Last Monday a demolition crew began clearing the former Century Park Movie Theater from the site.

The Chairman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe told the media:

"Today is a super, super blessed day that we get to do this and turn a new chapter. The theater will become, not as big as our other casino, but a casino with a hotel and a conference room and then from there the revenue will be shared throughout the community to beautify a lot of things, improve homes, send members to universities and better health."

- Peter Yucupicio, Pascua Yaqui Chairman

Former movie theater demolished to make place for Tucson casino
Courtesy of Arizona Daily Star, Feb 20 2023. Available from YouTube

There has been little information released with details of the new Tucson casino. A groundbreaking is expected later this year followed by 2-3 years of construction. When finished, the casino will employ 800-900 workers, and pay a 12% share of casino revenues to City of Tucson.

New Pascua Yaqui casino is planned near downtown Tucson

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe has received federal approval for a 30-acre casino site located east of Interstate 10 on West Grant Road. The land is the former site of a Century Park 16 movie theater.

The CEO of Casino Del Sol, Kim Van Amburg, expects the new casino will have its groundbreaking in 12-18 months and its grand opening in 2-3 years. A hotel may be built later. The casino is expected to create 500-600 new jobs.

No further details have been released.

The new Tucson casino will be the third owned by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. The tribe also owns the Casino Del Sol and Casino of the Sun, which are both further away from downtown Tucson than the new casino site.