Pechanga seeks to fill 560 jobs

With its massive $285 million expansion about six months from completion, Pechanga Resort & Casino is boosting its employment rolls on a grand scale.

Pechanga will post 560 new jobs on its website Thursday and hold a two-day job fair June 15 and 16 to fill positions in its new hotel tower, restaurants and other facilities. The jobs range from entry level to managerial posts, including everything from hotel room attendants to line cooks, servers and their supervisors.

A total of 750 jobs will be added by the time Pechanga unveils its new facilities in December, said spokeswoman Ciara Green, with about two dozen positions already filled, the 560 currently being sought and the remaining 165 to be hired in November.

“The bulk of the jobs will be for the resort, in food and beverage and the hotel. But we have 11 divisions here and all of them are being beefed up in some respect,” Green said, noting that service departments, like finance, accounts payable, warehouse operations and IT will increase their ranks as well.

The hiring fair will be divided into hotel applicants on June 15 and food and beverage positions on June 16. The job fair will be held from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days in the Pechanga Grand Ballroom. Entry level pay starts at $10.50 an hour and up, according to a statement from Pechanga. Between 800 and 1,000 applicants are expected to attend.

To get a taste — literally — of what it’s like to work at the resort, food and beverage applicants can watch cooking demos and sample dishes made by chefs at Pechanga’s 11 eateries. Hotel job hopefuls can pass the wait time at the fair on a putting green and get chair massages by spa employees.

“We’re making this job fair unique so we can entice the best applicants,” Janet Borland, Pechanga’s human resources talent manager said in the statement. She said Pechanga would start extending job offers as early as June 19.

Located in Temecula, Pechanga is already one of the largest casino properties in Southern California. The expansion project will bring the resort’s total number of rooms to 1,090, making it the biggest casino hotel in California. Pechanga is also adding a 4-acre pool complex and a two-story, stand-alone 24,000-square-foot spa, two new restaurants and an additional 68,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

Job applicants should go to pechanga.com/careers.

Twitter: @sdeditgirl

michele.parente@sduniontribune.com