Get a sneak peek at Tucson’s newest casino

As construction workers busied about the still unfinished 154,480-square-foot casino on Tuesday morning, the casino’s CEO and general manager led a sneak preview tour for nearly a dozen reporters.

“They’re moving so fast,” Casino del Sol’s interim CEO Amanda Sampson Lomayesva said, surveying workers installing a platform in front of a giant video wall that will greet visitors near the main entrance. “Every time I come here it’s a leap forward.”

This is the Pacua Yaqui’s third casino, and it comes 25 years after it opened Casino del Sol on West Valencia Road in 2001. Its flagship, Casino of the Sun at 7406 S. Camino De Oeste, started as a bingo club in 1982 and opened as a full-fledged casino in 1994.

“It’s exciting,” GM Lesah Sesma said of the casino’s location near downtown. “I was scared at first because I wasn’t sure how people would react. But it’s been so good.”

The opening comes nearly two years after the tribe broke ground on a 31-acre parcel on West Grant Road near Interstate 10 that had been home to several businesses and the Century 16 multiplex. Sesma said when fully built out in the next couple of years, the project could include a hotel and convention center, although plans are still undecided.

But Sesma said the casino at 1055 W. Grant Road could spark development and change along West Grant Road, reviving an area that has seen an exodus of businesses largely due to recent road construction.

Sesma said the casino could draw visitors from as far away as Texas as well as from Casa Grande, Phoenix and Mexico.

When Vahi Taa’am — pronounced vah-hee tah-ahm — opens, it will include:

• 52,252-square-foot gaming floor with 928 slot machines and 24 table games.

• Five bars and lounges.

• SolSports sportsbook that allows wagers on parlays, teasers, futures, player props, in-play and round robins.

• Dining options include OP Grill, an upscale casual dining restaurant on the mezzanine overlooking the gaming floor with a menu that focuses on local flavors; a trio of fast-casual eateries — UME Asian-fusion, Streetscape pizza and deli and Abuelitas Taqueria Mexican food — in the Sewa Market food court.

• 1,562 parking spaces, 1,004 of them located in the four-level parking garage. Guests entering through the garage can take the escalator into the casino.