Major renovation work is beginning at Western New York’s largest hotel. Outside of maintenance and furniture replacement, hundreds of rooms at Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino remain largely as they were when the property opened in 2005.
That will change after a $47 million investment from Seneca Gaming on 22 floors of the hotel. Seneca Gaming CEO Kevin Nephew said it’s part of a greater enhancement effort for the Native nation’s hospitality properties.
"It's just starting to languish a little bit, so we went ahead and we made the investment," Nephew said. "We'd made the investment at Seneca Allegany already at that hotel, and we're continuing. So once we did the arrival experience downstairs, it was just a matter of time to come up all the way through."
Leaders of Seneca Gaming say these projects represent what will be a series of reinvestment efforts across casino and hotel facilities at Allegany, Niagara and Buffalo Creek.
"Each project is designed to maximize what makes Seneca Resorts and Casinos a unique world-class destination," said Chairman of Seneca Gaming Corporation Allie George. "We have been delivering the best at our properties for nearly 25 years. The best is going to keep getting better as we continue to travel on this journey."
Work on nearly 600 rooms and suites at Seneca Niagara will be done in three-floor phases, beginning in October. This will allow an ample amount of rooms to still be available for bookings, a number that stands at around 141,000 in 2026 so far.
When asked if the gaming floor could soon see an overhaul, Nephew hinted that is in the pipeline.
"Let's put it this way: not at this press conference, but maybe some press conferences in the future," he said.
The redesigned units, which include end and center suites, as well as standard rooms, take inspiration from nature. Namely, water and earth tones.
The gaming corporation's construction and design team also engaged Seneca Nation members in how to incorporate cultural imaging and art into the new look of the rooms.
"We brought in Seneca artists and Seneca descendant artists for all the artwork that's in these rooms. So all original artwork provided by Seneca artists," said Seneca Gaming VP of Design and Construction Joseph Fanara. "And we had a cultural committee of the Senecas weighing in on what those pieces would be."
Planning for the renovation was not without its challenges however, noted Fanara.
"We have a lot of the furniture, the casework in the rooms, coming from overseas. When the tariffs hit that obviously delayed a lot of things getting to us for the mock-up rooms," he said. "Which we just had to manage through."
Total completion of the project is expected to happen in December 2027.
