VERONA — Thirty years after opening Turning Stone Resort Casino and 10 years after reaching a landmark settlement with New York State and Oneida and Madison counties, the Oneida Indian Nation is not resting on its laurels.

The Nation is, in fact, undergoing an evolution that begins with improvements at Turning Stone and ends with a rebranding of its Oneida Nation Enterprises business arm.

“In July, Turning Stone Resort Casino celebrated its 30th anniversary,” Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said in a press statement. “A great deal has changed during this time. Thirty years ago, there was no blueprint for how to build an award-winning destination resort. There was only an empty cornfield and a belief that with hard work, partnerships, and a commitment to reinvestment, we could build an engine of job creation and economic growth.”

The Oneida Indian Nation’s economic impact on the region is substantial, according to an economic-impact study by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company.

Operational spending by the Nation for fiscal year 2022-2023 totals $511.9 million, with another $9.4 million coming from off-site spending by non-local visitors. The Nation paid out $89.1 million in settlement-agreement payments last year, bringing the total to $642.3 million since the agreement went into effect.

Last year, the Oneida Indian Nation also paid $115 million to local vendors in Onondaga, Oneida, and Madison counties. Those payments generated a total economic impact of $177 million and supported about 1,340 full-time and part-time jobs, the Tourism Economics study said. That total economic impact of $177 million generated $23.1 million in state and local taxes.

Rather than be content with what the Oneida Indian Nation has already built and accomplished, Halbritter has his sights always set to the future. 

“As we prepare for the next 30 years, we know that the same level of commitment to reinvestment and partnerships, along with a bold vision for the future of our region, will be the key to its success for the next three decades and beyond.”

In that light, a $370 million project to reimagine Turning Stone will begin early next year. The two-year project will add 77,000 square feet of new events space, eight meeting rooms with 9,000 square feet of space, two ballrooms including a 30,000-square-foot grand ballroom, an outdoor courtyard and outdoor event space, an indoor parking garage with 2,000 spaces, and The Crescent, a 258-room hotel. Along with serving as home to fine-dining restaurant, Salt Seafood & Raw Bar, the hotel will feature king and double-queen guest rooms as well as one- and two-bedroom suites. 

Existing conference spaces will be spruced up with new drop-down screens, projectors, other technology, and new décor.

The Turning Stone Hotel will undergo a three-year transformation into The Brook with fresh, modern rooms. The Lodge at Turning Stone begins the final phase of its three-year renovation in early 2024.

Architecture and design firm Gensler serves as development partner for the expansion project. Gensler, with 50 worldwide locations, serves more than 3,500 clients in numerous industries. The project will create about 3,400 one-time jobs and, according to the Tourism Economics report, generate a $583 million one-time economic impact and $20.6 million in state and local tax revenues.

Turning Stone currently features five hotels with 788 guest rooms and suites, 12 dining venues, gaming, a spa, golf courses, 125,000 square feet of meeting space, a 5,000-seat event center, a showroom, and a sportsplex for golf, tennis, and racquetball.

That sportplex will relocate closer to the Shenandoah Clubhouse to make room for the new meeting and convention space, says Joel Barkin, VP of communications for the Oneida Indian Nation.

The former Lava Nightclub, located in Turning Stone’s Exit 33 area, will transform into NY Rec & Social Club. Along with serving as the new home of The Lounge with Caesars Sportsbook, the venue will also offer entertainment experiences including more than 60 high-definition screens, fan caves, arcade games, pool tables, and an outdoor patio with fire pits.

“Turning Stone will grow rapidly during the next two years, yet these changes are more than an expansion,” Halbritter said. “They represent a true evolution and a commitment to the continued growth of our enterprises and this region.”

Name change

The evolution extends to the name Oneida Nation Enterprises, which will become Turning Stone Enterprises on Oct. 1. The name change represents a promise to continue the Nation’s role in the evolution and revitalization of the region as well as enriching the lives of employees and guests and building a future for the Oneida people, it says.

The change brings the Turning Stone brand recognition across all of the Nation’s enterprises, which includes YBR Casino & Sports Book, Point Place Casino, The Lake House at Sylvan Beach, The Cove at Sylvan Beach, Maple Leaf Markets, SavOn Convenience stores, the Salmon Acres hunting preserve, an RV park, two marinas, a maple business, and a cannabis venture. The Nation also recently announced it would open a Tesla electric vehicle sales center by 2025.

 Turning Stone will also partner with Rome Health to create a 5,000-square-foot medical center located on its mezzanine level to provide urgent, convenience, cardiology, and primary-care services to employees, their families, and Turning Stone guests.

“It is appropriate that our 30th anniversary is defined by evolution,” Halbritter said. “Constant progress has been our business model for three decades. It has shown us that as we grow and succeed, so do our employees and the region. As we celebrate this milestone and look to the future, we know that this symbiotic relationship will be key to sustaining this growth for generations to come.”                      

HERKIMER — The Herkimer 9 Foundation is on a mission to honor Herkimer as the first birthplace of basketball and promote that legacy by revitalizing the Main Street corridor through its Herkimer 9, LLC.

Both are the brainchild of Scott Flansburg, a Herkimer native who returned to the area during the pandemic. He created the foundation in September 2021 with the goal of recognizing Lambert Will for developing the game of basketball. James Naismith is credited for inventing the game in Springfield, Massachusetts in December 1891, but some believe Will, who was Herkimer YMCA director at the time, came up with the concept for basketball months earlier.

That goal grew to include creating some sort of anchor that would help revitalize North Main Street. The approach “was take those buildings that existed when it happened … and revitalize them,” Flansburg says.

The result of that idea is a vision that includes creating the world’s largest basketball attraction featuring a 32-foot-diameter basketball, building an athletics complex to host youth-basketball tournaments and other athletic events, and creating a 30,000-square-foot green space.

Similar to how the Utica University Nexus Center and National Baseball Hall of Fame have boosted sports tourism in their immediate regions, Flansburg believes his foundation can do the same for Herkimer.

“Why not the Lambert Will Center for Basketball in Herkimer?” he asks. He projects such a center could host events year-round, drawing thousands to the region.

Flansburg would also like to acquire the former Palmer House building, now home to some apartments and storefronts, and renovate it into a basketball-themed hotel with 30 suites, each featuring an NBA team.

Work is already underway at the former H.M. Quackenbush factory building, which the Herkimer 9 Foundation owns. While pavement is being torn out to make way for the green space, the foundation is hard at work finalizing plans to turn the former factory into a STEAM learning center, he says.

“Our goal is we will have a museum about Mr. Quackenbush,” he notes. The facility will also have some mixed-use space and could serve as the home of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame. “We’ve got a lot of suggestions we’re weighing,” Flansburg adds.

Other possible plans include creating a pedestrian place on North Main Street, adding civic gates to signal the entrance to the historic basketball district, and adding a historical marker for the former Herkimer YMCA location where Lambert is thought to have invented basketball.

“You can’t fix everything, but … we could fix that one block that has all that history on it,” Flansburg says.

The majority of funding for the project comes from private donations and investments, he says. Events such as golf tournaments have brought in additional funds.

The project is a labor of love for the Herkimer native. Flansburg was born and raised in Herkimer before spending many years traveling as The Human Calculator. He is even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest human calculator.

“I’ve committed three years of my life to this project,” he says. At the doorstep of Cooperstown and the Adirondacks, Herkimer should be a vibrant community, he says. If he has his way, it soon will be.