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    Tuesday, December 03, 2024

    Foxwoods turns 32, announces what’s in store for 2024

    Miss Mashantucket Preonna Boyd-Cannon, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, dances during Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 32nd anniversary celebration on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    Attendees listen to a speaker at Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 32nd anniversary celebration Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    The Yootay Singers, made of members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, sing during Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 32nd Anniversary Celebration at the Rainmaker Expo Center on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    Attendees listen to a speaker at Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 32nd Anniversary Celebration at the Rainmaker Expo Center on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    Nia Grace, owner of Grace by Nia, which will open its second location this spring at Foxwoods Resort Casino, hugs Foxwoods President and Chief Executive Officer Jason Guyot during Foxwoods’ 32nd anniversary celebration on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    The Yootay Singers, made up of members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, sing during Foxwoods Resort Casino’s 32nd anniversary celebration Thursday February 15, 2024. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
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    Mashantucket ― Foxwoods Resort Casino this year plans to upgrade its high-limit table games room, open a new 30-seat slots bar and launch renovations of The Fox Tower hotel rooms, the casino’s president and chief executive officer announced Thursday while celebrating Foxwoods’ 32nd anniversary.

    Two new food and beverage options also are on tap, one aimed at the sweet tooth and the other a supper club with a Boston flavor.

    Jason Guyot, facing hundreds of onlookers gathered outside the Rainmaker Expo Center, said Foxwoods was continuing a transformation begun some 18 months ago, including the openings last summer of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, a Wahlburgers restaurant and the Pequot Woodlands Casino, a 50,000-square-foot gaming area off the Grand Pequot Concourse.

    Guyot said the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe was investing more than $20 million in the upcoming improvements outlined Thursday. They include:

    • Makeovers of a high-limit table games room, as well as construction of a new bar and renovations of a table games area in the Grand Pequot Tower. The 30-seat bar, accompanied by 25 slot machines, “will be the grandest bar we have ever built at Foxwoods,” Guyot said.
    • Renovations of The Fox Tower’s 823 hotel rooms, a multi-year project set to begin this summer. The work is to encompass “a sleek, contemporary design with gold accents,” according to a Foxwoods’ news release.
    • The opening in April of celebrity pastry chef Zac Young’s Sprinkletown Donuts & Ice Cream. Young, who attended Thursday’s event, is known for his appearances on Food Network and Bravo. He opened Sprinkletown Bakeshop at Foxwoods in 2021.
    • The opening in May of Grace by Nia, “a modern day supper club and live music lounge,” whose first incarnation debuted last summer in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood. Founder and namesake Nia Grace, a community leader in Boston, also appeared at Thursday’s event. Her club will be located adjacent to Foxwoods’ High Rollers bowling alley and lounge.

    Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket tribal chairman, also spoke at Thursday’s celebration, noting that Foxwoods’ evolution actually began 37 years ago with the opening of a high-stakes bingo hall that became Foxwoods Resort Casino in 1992.

    Butler said nearly 200 tribal members are employed at Foxwoods, which he said continues to serve as an economic engine for the region and the state.

    While Foxwoods changes inside, the largest private construction project currently underway in the state continues to rise outside on land adjacent to the casino: the Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, a $300 million indoor water park resort.

    Guyot said that project is on track to open in 2025.

    b.hallenbeck@theday.com

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