Mashantucket — Celebrating Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 30th anniversary, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and casino officials announced at a news conference Tuesday that they’ve reached an agreement with Great Wolf Resorts, an indoor water park developer they first engaged more than 14 years ago.

Foxwoods also revealed it is planning to open a new high-stakes bingo hall, convert the casino's existing bingo hall into a 75,000-square-foot convention center and renovate the casino’s main entrance.

Plans call for the Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket to open adjacent to the casino in 2024.

“We’re just getting started,” Jason Guyot, Foxwoods president and chief executive officer, said at the late-afternoon event attended by Gov. Ned Lamont.

In 2007, the Mashantuckets, in partnership with Great Wolf Resorts, pursued plans to develop an indoor water park on tribe-owned, nonreservation land along Route 214 in Ledyard. After town officials approved a zoning change for the project, it was abandoned in the face of an economic downturn.

Since then, other developers, including a Mashantucket tribal entity, have had interest in developing a water park at the casino, said Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, he said, Great Wolf Resorts revived its interest.

“They called us,” Butler said.

Great Wolf Resorts is investing most of the capital in the project, which will be built in an empty parking area between the casino’s Rainmaker entrance and the Pequot Outpost gas station/convenience store on Foxwoods Boulevard, according to Butler. A portion of Trolley Lane Boulevard will be relocated to accommodate the project.

Butler said Great Wolf Resorts will own the water park facility and lease the real estate from the tribe, an arrangement similar to that of Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, the Tanger-owned indoor shopping mall linking the casino’s Grand Pequot and Fox towers.

Great Wolf Resorts bills itself as the leading developer of indoor water park resorts in the U.S. and Canada. It operates nearly 20 Great Wolf Lodge locations — rustic-themed resorts that offer lodging and pools, slides, "splash grounds" and other family fare.

The new high-stakes bingo hall, scheduled to open in the spring, will be located in the former Festival Casino area. It will include more than 30,000 square feet of event space, seat more than 2,200 people and offer bigger prize pools, Guyot said. The new Rainmaker Expo Center, which will be built in the existing Bingo Hall, will accommodate trade shows, corporate meetings and sporting events.

“It gives us another 4,000 seats for entertainment, too,” Guyot said.

Casino officials also announced the casino will donate $30,000 to a local charity "that shares Foxwoods' values" each month for the rest of the year. The United Way of Southeastern Connecticut, a nonprofit that supports the health, education and financial stability of people throughout the region, is the first recipient.

Foxwoods also is giving away $30,000 in cash and prizes to patrons every day this week.

Butler, in remarks to an audience of tribal members and guests, acknowledged the role Richard “Skip" Hayward, the former Mashantucket chairman, played in founding Foxwoods.

“Skip is a true visionary that would be on the Mount Rushmore of tribal leaders who led the way for the economic success that gaming has provided to tribes all across the country,” Butler said. “Skip's passion for his people and vision of a world-class destination still guides us to this day and has allowed the tribe three decades of success.”

Hayward was unable to attend Tuesday’s event.

Butler said gaming has always been a means to an end “that has allowed us to rebuild and repatriate a thriving community. ... It is the revenue base which allows the tribe to fund housing initiatives, cover health care, advance education, and preserve our culture and history, among other things.”

Lamont noted Foxwoods evolved from “a pizza place” to a bingo hall to, most recently, a provider of sports wagering and online gaming thanks to an agreement reached last year among the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the state.

“Connecticut, you’re getting lucky,” he said, noting that the Connecticut Lottery Corp. celebrated its 50th anniversary Tuesday. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz delivered a proclamation from Lamont at an event marking that milestone at the lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com