The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria celebrated on March 26, 2025, with a topping-off ceremony for the $1 billion expansion of Graton Resort and Casino victory Wednesday, according to pressdemocrat.com.
A crowd watched as a 300-ft. cable dangling from a crane lifted a metal beam, carried it across a road and lowered it onto the skeletal frame of a future gaming floor next to the current casino in Rohnert Park, Calif.
The project's architect is Bergman Walls & Associates, according to asianjournal.com, while the developer is ECL Development LLC and the general contractor is SMC Contracting Inc.
Plans call for approximately 180,000 sq. ft. of new indoor space, including 2,000 or more slot machines, more than 200 hotel rooms, a 3,500-seat concert theater, retail shops, a 28,000-sq.-ft. rooftop restaurant with seating for 480 guests and an expanded pool area, according to pressdemocrat.com.
The expansion will roughly double the size of the $825 million casino-resort that opened in 2013.
In August 2024, a five-story parking structure that is part of the expansion opened, pressdemocrat.com reported.
Tribal chair Greg Sarris said at the topping-off ceremony that the tribe will break ground on the hotel in June. The new casino is expected to open in a year.
Sonoma County has two tribal gaming facilities; the other is River Rock Casino in Geyserville.
Pressdemocrat.com reported that Graton Resort and Casino is the largest in the Bay Area and the second-largest private employer in Sonoma County. Sarris told the publications that the casino will be the county's largest private-sector em-ployer when construction is complete.
Graton Rancheria makes annual payments of $13.3 million to the city of Rohnert Park, $14.5 million to Sonoma County and 3.7 million to support the county's network of regional parks and open space preserves, according to pressdemocrat.com.
Graton Rancheria also is opposing a rival casino proposed by the Koi National on land near Windsor. It sued the federal Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs for the January approval of that project. It claims the Koi Nation of "reservation shopping" and that the federal agencies are ignoring environmental law, pressdemocrat.com reported.
