GARY, Ind. (AP) — A 300-room hotel built opened by Donald Trump's casino company in 1998 to help draw gamblers to a northwestern Indiana casino has been shut down.
The June 30 closure came as the current owner of the Majestic Star Casino in Gary is working to move it from along Lake Michigan to a location along the busy Interstate 80-94 in the city.
Spectacle Entertainment vice president Jahnae Erpenbach tells The (Northwest Indiana) Times that the hotel had declining occupancy and making needed renovations didn't make sense with the upcoming casino move.
The company has filed a request for city zoning approval for construction of the new casino on about 32 acres (13 hectares) of vacant land along I-80/94. The plans show a 258,000-square-foot (23,969-square-meter) casino and an attached "future hotel" of unspecified size.
