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Cherokee, NC Projects (including largest project in NC!)


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For those unfamiliar, Cherokee is a tourism dominated in Western North Carolina; an hour west of Asheville, the southern entrance to the great Smoky Mountains National Park. Also home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I've lived here much of my life and currently there are a number of construction projects underway.

http://www.cherokee-nc.com/index.php?page=290

I'll update this post with projects over the next couple of days.

Harrahs Cherokee Expansion

I'll start with the largest construction project currently underway in the state: The 650 million dollar expansion of Harrahs Cherokee Casino. The Eastern Band owns and is funding the project, Harrah's Manages the property through a contractual agreement.

Construction Webcams: http://oxblue.com/pro/open/harrahscherokeemasterplan

Link with lots of information(including animated flyover video): http://www.cuningham.com/invent/play/casin...e_casino__hotel

EBCI Emergency Operations Center

LEED certified, will house IT and all emergency services programs.

http://www.ebciconstruction.com/eoc.htm

[bKituwah Language Academy]

An immersion school, to preserve the Cherokee Languauge. Its a remodel/expansion of an existing facility. But I personally think its one of the best looking facilities around!

http://www.ebciconstruction.com/kituwah.htm

Cherokee Central School

New K-12 school complex. Opens August 10th after a 3 year construction stent.

http://www.padgettandfreeman.com/architect...ducational.html

Sequoyah National Golf Club

A robert trent johns II course. Very beautiful, have personally walked the course. Opens Labor Day weekend 2009

http://www.sequoyahnational.com/

More updates to come!

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I think Cherokee used to be a nice place but now it's all about dollar signs unfortunately, and a lot of old Cherokee has become run down. I know Cherokee got some press recently when Bob Barker was there talking about the caged bears. I was unaware of Harrah's expansion and that is the largest construction project in the state though, interesting.

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Interesting post....thanks for adding it.

I read somewhere a year or so ago the Tribe was going to fund a "downtown Cherokee revitalization". (Which is not something one hears that often on tribal reservations, which tend to be mostly rural.) Do you know anything about that one? You can bet those of us on Urbanplanet would be interested in that one! ;)

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The Tribe has a gaming compact with the state of North Carolina that regulates the types of gaming (jackpot sizes, etc). The current compact goes back quite a few years; the Tribe tried to renegotiate the compact with governor Easly but were unsuccessful. We are hopeful the new governor will be willing to sit down and begin the renegotiation process. The Tribe definitely wants and has sought class III gaming (unlimited jackpots, live dealers, etc).

All this falls under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, google it for more info.

Anyways sorry for the long answer. I'll have more updates on construction soon! Including showing some of the downtown efforts that were underway in regards to the previous post, before the recession really hamper the progress.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Saw some articles in recent weeks in the Asheville paper about the tribe's grand openings for the new golf course and new k-12 school complex. That latter of which, is some very impressive architecture, IMO.

As for expansion of gambling (and the casino), one of those articles quoted Governor Perdue as saying she is open to re-opening some of the talks to get there. (Apparently they were stalled under her predecessor.)

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry to chime in late but what exactly makes this the largest project in NC? Certainly not money. Charlotte's Duke Energy Center is 1 billion dollars, the 1 Bank of America Center is 800 million dollars, the big Lake norman project is 800million dollars, while Harrah's is 650 million dollars. I'm not sure about square footage of harrahs but I dunno how it compares to 1.6 million sq foot Duke Energy Center/Wells Fargo Cultural Campus or the 1million sq foot Bank of America Center (including hotel and winter garden). I'm just trying to figure it out, not trying to troll or anything.

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Hey all, sorry I havent replied in a while; here are a few updates.

Clarification on the "largest construction project"

http://www.harrahscherokee.com/images/non_...undbreaking.pdf

"The Master Plan for the property is currently the largest hospitality expansion project underway in the Southeast and one of the largest in the United States, offering the greatest number of hotel accommodations in the state."

New School Opened in August:

Article on the technologies making it meet LEED certifications.

http://www.wncgreenbuilding.com/2009/chero..._takes_the_leed

080809cherokee_t607.jpg

Language Academy opened two weeks ago:

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/10..._immersion.html

Sequoyah National opened last month as well.

sequoyah.jpg

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