PRIOR LAKE, Minn. - Construction has officially begun on a new hotel tower and convention center at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake.
The nine-story hotel tower will add 180 rooms to the existing 586 rooms at the hotel.
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community officials say it would be the second-largest hotel in the metro.
The convention center will be 70,000 square feet with three-story windows overlooking the nationally acclaimed public golf course "The Meadows at Mystic Lake."
The project is expected to create up to 400 construction jobs and about 100 permanent jobs.
Officials hope to open by the end of 2017, which is Mystic Lake's 25th anniversary.
