HARRIS, Mich. (WLUC) – A $19 million expansion that includes a new golf course and more convention space is underway at the Island Resort & Casino in Harris.

General Manager Tony Mancilla said each of the three projects in the expansion address customer need.

“We just get a lot of requests for some big regional conventions,” Mancilla said. “And we just don’t have the space to host it right now.”

The casino now hosts 500 to 600 person conventions. The expansion will allow it to host conventions with up to 1,200 people.

“We’re adding a large ballroom to our Convention Center,” Mancilla said. “It will be about 17,000 square feet, which is about twice the size of what we have.”

The new space will also be used for a specific activity.

“We’re actually gonna have an Island pickleball league on Mondays and Tuesdays,” he said.

A second project is the addition of a 9-hole golf course.

“We have 42,000 rounds of golf a year,” Mancilla said. “We know where the need is. It’s those early morning tee-times. We anticipate being well over 50,000 once the new nine is going.”

Mancilla said many guests want to play a round on the day they leave but don’t have time for 18 holes on either the Sweetgrass or Sage Run courses. The smaller course meets that need, he said.

The Cedar Course will be located in the valley next to the Sage Run course. Its name, just like Sage and Sweetgrass, has a special meaning.

“There are four traditional Potawatomi medicines. They’re sage, sweetgrass, tobacco and cedar,” Mancilla said.

He added that tobacco will be worked into the logo for Cedar, so all four medicines will be represented on the three golf courses.

The third project is a new golf shop at Sweetgrass.

“It’s going to be located in a really cool spot where people can come off the course, have a drink and watch golfers come in on nine and 18,” Golf Director Nathan Rousseau said.

Mancilla said the resort keeps a growth-oriented mindset, which is especially important when labor and inflation costs go up.

“You’ve got to grow in order to sustain how you’re working, how you’re operating,” he said. “We’ve grown the past 10 years probably six to 8% a year and we can continue to grow.”

He said most of the growth is driven by golf and conventions.

Expected completion dates are mid-winter for the new golf shop, June 2025 for the convention center addition and mid-2026 for the Cedar Course.

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