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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Crossing Casino construction picking up speed in Cedar Rapids
The future casino’s walls and roof are up, and the workforce will soon increase
Nov. 20, 2025 7:10 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS -- “Just imagine. Four weeks ago, there was nothing,” said Kim Pang, vice president of development at Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, the company behind the upcoming Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center. He gestured to the floor, now solid under construction workers’ feet. The building was warm, too — workers’ safety glasses fogged up as they entered the building from the outside.
Nine months after Peninsula Pacific Entertainment broke ground at the site -- the day after the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission voted to grant a gaming license to build a planned $275 million casino and entertainment center near downtown Cedar Rapids -- the walls, roof and core mechanical systems are all installed. Pang said the next phase of the project would focus on refining interior details for the casino and multiple facilities slated to share the site.
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The interior of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
Media walk through Cedar Crossing on a media tour in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
Vice President of Development Kim Pang takes media on a tour of Cedar Crossing in northwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, November 20, 2025.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)
The proposed Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center will include 700 slot machines, 22 game tables, restaurants, bars, an entertainment venue with a capacity of 1,500 people, an arts and cultural center, and a STEM lab for children.
Pang said the goal was to have the roof finished before winter. When asked if construction still would finish in time for New Year’s Eve 2026 -- the opening date Peninsula Pacific Entertainment president Brent Stevens gave in February -- Pang was cautious.
“Murphy’s law would have it. I don’t want to jinx it, but inadvertently, something will be delayed,” he said. “I don't want to say we're ahead or we're behind. We're focused.”
There are currently 130 tradespeople working onsite daily, and the company said the number will soon increase to 200. In total, the Cedar Crossing project is expected to support around 800 construction jobs over the 18-month building process.
The vast majority of that labor is local — 98.5 percent of all construction contracts awarded to the project thus far come from Iowan subcontractors.
Although Cedar Crossing will have a casino on site, Pang said the company wanted to ensure that people younger than 21 years old could visit the property without accessing the gaming. Neither was the intention that parents could come and drop their children off at the STEM center.
“You can come to the STEM center, you can go get something to eat in the smoke house, and you can leave,” Pang said. “You don’t have to get on a casino floor to get to any of those facilities.”
Tom Barton and Grace Nieland of The Gazette contributed to this article.
Comments: fern.alling@thegazette.com
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