As the skeleton for the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino grows darker on the horizon, its exposed steel with a shelf-life of six years oxidizing, ground was broken yesterday for the expansion of the temporary casino at Michigan and Perry Streets. The project is expected to be completed by spring of 2010.
Though construction was halted on the $333 million Buffalo Creek last year due to “economic downturn,” according to a Seneca spokesman, the temporary facility continued to operate in the face of a series of lawsuits, upheld by Judge William Skretny, that threatened unsuccessfully to shut them down.
The expansion of the temporary facility will allow for 250 more slot machines, to add to the 200 that are already in place. According to this Buffalo Rising story 2008 casino revenue-sharing brought $5.2 million to the State of New York, and Mayor Byron Brown projected that a completed Buffalo Creek facility would provide $9 million per year to the City of Buffalo, along with 1,000 new jobs.