BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – New York’s Seneca Indian Nation has set aside $1 million to spruce up the neighborhoods surrounding its Buffalo casino.
Leaders of the western New York tribe have been talking with elected and community leaders in Buffalo about how to better integrate the Buffalo Creek Casino into its surroundings, rather than stand as an island. The money will go for things like off-site lighting and landscaping.
The 4-year-old casino operates out of a temporary structure because the poor economy and legal challenges have forced the Senecas to postpone construction of an ambitious $333 million hotel-casino complex at the Buffalo site. Seneca President Robert Odawi (oh-DOW’-wee) Porter says the tribe is now downsizing those plans.
The Senecas also have casinos in nearby Niagara Falls and Salamanca, 50 miles south of Buffalo.