FRENCH LICK, Ind. (WDRB) -- A new bar and hotel will open at French Lick Resort this week.
The $21 million Valley Tower and Valley Bar will open Friday adjacent to the resort’s casino and events center. The six-story, 71-room hotel will have two meeting rooms and a 21-and-over restaurant and bar.
“What we continued to hear was that there was really no place to gather with their colleagues and hang out for a drink or two,” Cook Group Vice President Chuck Franz said.
The French Lick Casino sportsbook opened in September. Sportsbooks in Indiana drew in $91.7 million in October, according to PlayIndiana.com, but Franz said the French Lick Casino sportsbook hasn’t given the two existing hotels, French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels, much of a bump in business.
They were already 95% full on the weekends.
“You couldn't get a room here on Friday or Saturday night,” Franz said.
Valley Tower is already sold out for opening weekend. The 71 new rooms will supplement the already existing 686 guestrooms at French Lick Resort’s two historic hotels. There are 443 at French Lick Springs Hotel and 243 at West Baden Springs Hotel.
The resort will hire 100 new employees to run the new Valley Tower hotel and Valley Bar, but an area housing shortage is making it hard to find workers, Franz said.
“It's a problem in the state of Indiana, and I'm sure it's probably a problem in Kentucky.” he said.
As Orange County's largest employer with 1,700 associates, the resort is changing the county's landscape, helping to build new houses and apartments nearby for its employees.
And the resort's not stopping there. It's planning even more event space for the future.
“We are already think about what's next," Franz said. "The two pavilions is what we're looking at next."
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