VERONA, NY – The Turning Stone Evolution, the Oneida Indian Nation’s largest ever reinvestment into Turning Stone Resort Casino, will welcome guests ahead of schedule as The Crescent Hotel and Salt Seafood & Raw Bar make their debut next summer on June 29, 2026. The Grand Expo will open shortly after on Labor Day 2026. The Turning Stone Evolution was initially anticipated to open in 2027.
When The Grand Expo opens in early September, it will expand Turning Stone’s conference and event spaces to 200,000 sq. ft. of modern meeting rooms, making it New York’s largest meetings and conventions resort.
The Grand Expo will be home to two ballrooms, including the Grand Ballroom, an elevated space that may be configured in numerous ways and that boasts a dedicated outdoor terrace and a spacious design to accommodate close to 2,000 guests. Among the outdoor spaces created by the Turning Stone Evolution, a new 25,000 sq. ft. courtyard will be situated at the center of The Grand Expo’s meeting rooms and provide a natural setting for celebrations, business receptions and weddings.
The massive expansion includes The Crescent Hotel, which features a stunning exterior profile and 258 luxurious new guest rooms and suites to accommodate guests for business and leisure travel. The hotel will offer a dedicated entrance and check-in, as well as indoor connectivity to The Grand Expo, restaurants, the Event Center, the Showroom and the gaming floor.
The new hotel will be home to Salt Seafood & Raw Bar, a new restaurant from the award-winning culinary team behind Turning Stone’s Forbes Four Star award-winning venues. Salt Seafood & Raw Bar will redefine fine dining in Upstate New York with its menu and sweeping views of the beautiful natural landscape from its location on The Crescent Hotel’s seventh floor. In addition to a main dining area and raw bar, the restaurant also boasts spacious private dining rooms with heated terraces for elegant three-season outdoor dining surrounded by the night sky.
The Turning Stone Evolution also includes a new 1,600-space parking garage, doubling existing indoor parking capacity at the resort, and an on-site medical center that will serve team members, their families and resort guests.
Booking for The Crescent Hotel will begin in early 2026, while reservations for groups and events at The Grand Expo are being accepted now.
Already one of the region’s largest workforces with more than 5,000 team members, Turning Stone Enterprises will be hiring for more than 350 positions to support the Turning Stone Evolution in 2026. New positions will include roles spanning a wide range of industries and sectors, including hospitality, culinary, sales, innovation, environmental services and housekeeping.
“The Turning Stone Evolution is a transformational investment in bringing new people to Upstate New York and giving them reasons to return,” said Ray Halbritter, Oneida Indian Nation Representative and Turning Stone Enterprises CEO. “Everything the Evolution is creating will allow us to compete with some of the top tourism and events markets in the country – destinations like New York City, Chicago, Orlando and more – and demonstrate what we have always known about Upstate New York: that we have everything these destinations offer and more.”
The Oneida Indian Nation has partnered with architecture and design firm Gensler and general contractors for the project, The Hayner Hoyt Corporation and TN Ward Company. The Turning Stone Evolution represents a generational investment in the Oneida Indian Nation’s enterprises and Upstate New York. The $370 million capital investment will also generate a one-time economic impact exceeding $600 million and create more than 3,500 construction and related jobs. At the same time, the Evolution has dramatically increased vendor spending, with $263 million invested with New York State vendors and more than $161 million spent with businesses in Oneida, Madison and Onondaga Counties. Since the project began, the Oneida Indian Nation has issued 90 awards to subcontractors in support of the Turning Stone Evolution, including 60 awarded to New York State businesses.
These investments in the Turning Stone Evolution build upon the Oneida Indian Nation’s role as an engine for growth and economic development in Upstate New York. In 2022, an economic impact analysis conducted by Oxford Economics found that Turning Stone and the Nation’s other business operations generated a more than $1 billion economic impact within the region.
