Catawba Nation Moves to Break Ground on $700M Two Kings Resort

The Catawba Indian Nation is moving to break ground on the permanent phase of its Two Kings Casino Resort near Kings Mountain, North Carolina, a roughly $700 million project that would convert one of the Carolinas' most contested gaming sites into a full-scale destination resort within driving distance of Charlotte. The expansion marks the most consequential step for the tribe since its temporary facility opened on the property in 2021, and it would cement Catawba gaming as a fixture of the Interstate 85 corridor.

The Two Kings Casino resort has long been the centerpiece of the Catawba Nation's economic strategy, and the permanent build-out is designed to anchor employment, tribal services and tourism revenue for a nation headquartered across the state line in South Carolina. The tribe has framed the project not as a single casino but as a multi-phase development intended to grow alongside demand in a market that, until recently, had little exposure to tribal gaming.

From temporary tent to destination resort

The Catawba's gaming presence in Cleveland County began modestly. After the U.S. Department of the Interior took land into trust for the tribe near Kings Mountain, Catawba opened an interim gaming hall — a pre-fabricated facility offering slot-style machines and electronic table games — that quickly demonstrated the appetite for a casino positioned between Charlotte and the South Carolina Upstate. The temporary facility was always intended as a bridge to something larger.

The permanent resort envisioned by the tribe is a different order of magnitude: a hotel tower, an expanded gaming floor, restaurants, meeting space and entertainment amenities aimed at converting day-trippers into overnight guests. For a region where the nearest comparable destination resorts sit in the North Carolina mountains or across state lines, the location is the project's single greatest asset. Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the Southeast, and a resort within an hour's drive enjoys a structural advantage that few greenfield casino sites can match.

That market logic helped the tribe assemble financing for a capital program of this size. Institutional lenders and gaming-sector capital have grown increasingly comfortable underwriting tribal projects with demonstrated revenue histories, and the temporary facility gave the Catawba a track record to point to. Readers following the broader financing picture can compare the project against trends across the national market in our 2025 economic impact report.

A site shaped by litigation

No account of Two Kings is complete without the legal history that surrounds it. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which operates its own casinos in western North Carolina, challenged the federal land-into-trust decision that made the Catawba project possible, arguing the Kings Mountain parcel fell outside the Catawba's historic territory and that the acquisition sidestepped the ordinary scrutiny applied to off-reservation gaming. Those disputes wound through the federal courts and the administrative process for years, and they illustrate how questions of "Indian lands" eligibility can shadow a project long after the slot machines are switched on.

The fight over Kings Mountain is a reminder that in tribal gaming, the location of a casino is often litigated as fiercely as the economics behind it.

For the Catawba, securing the permanent resort's footing means the underlying trust status and gaming eligibility have to remain durable through construction and beyond. The tribe's confidence in proceeding with a nine-figure build-out signals that it views the legal foundation as settled enough to commit major capital. Those interested in how federal land decisions interact with gaming rights can review the framework in our legal guide to IGRA and Class III gaming.

What a permanent resort means for the region

The economic case the Catawba make echoes the argument tribes across the country have advanced for decades: that gaming revenue funds government services a small nation cannot otherwise finance through a tax base. A permanent resort would expand the tribe's payroll significantly, add construction jobs during the build phase, and generate procurement spending with regional vendors. For Cleveland County, the project promises a tourism anchor and a property-tax-adjacent revenue stream through the tribe's revenue-sharing and local agreements.

The competitive dynamics are equally important. North Carolina launched legal sports betting in recent years, and the state's gaming landscape now features both the Eastern Band's established mountain casinos and the Catawba's emerging Charlotte-adjacent property. A full-scale Two Kings resort would intensify that intrastate competition while expanding the overall market — a pattern seen in other maturing states where new supply has tended to grow the pie rather than simply redistribute it. Visitors and operators tracking the wider Southeast can browse properties and operators in our national casino directory.

Construction timelines for resorts of this scale typically run two to three years from groundbreaking to grand opening, meaning a permanent Two Kings would likely welcome guests near the end of the decade. Until then, the temporary facility will continue to operate, generating the revenue that helps service the development's debt. For the Catawba Nation, the permanent resort represents the payoff of a decade-long bet that a tribe rooted in South Carolina could build an economic engine on the edge of one of the South's largest cities.