Construction has begun on the first phase of the $333 million Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino and Hotel project in downtown Buffalo's Cobblestone District. The Seneca Indian Nation said the hotel should open in spring 2010 and the casino that summer.

"We're excited to be taking the first big step on what will be one of the largest private development projects in Buffalo's history," Philip J. Pantano, Seneca Gaming Corp. spokesman, told the Buffalo News.

Seneca casino projects in Niagara Falls and Salamanca were completed under tight construction timetables.

"We're on time with the schedule we've always talked about for the permanent facility, and we have a history of completing projects we set out to do," Pantano told the News.

A lawsuit by Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County hoping to block the project is unlikely to be resolved for several months. The anti-casino groups' lawsuit targets the federal Department of the Interior, which, it claims, made errors in granting the Seneca sovereign territory status for the site. Without that status, gambling operations would be prohibited.

"They are whistling through the graveyard. They are building something they may never be able to use. I hope they have a 'Plan B,' " group Co-Chairman Joel Rose told the newspaper.

Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, said he has no doubt the Seneca Nation will build a high-quality gambling-hotel complex.

"Since coming into the City of Buffalo, they've done everything they said they would do.  They've been extremely cooperative and completely honorable. I have no doubt they'll build a state-of-the-art facility [that] will be a tremendous benefit to the local economy," said Brown, who has obtained Seneca promises to market the casino beyond Western New York.

The casino and hotel are expected to employ more than 1,000 people, while the local share of slot machine revenues might top $7 million annually.

--Staff reports