So long Emerald Queen: Puyallup Tribe’s riverboat casino on its way to Seattle after sale

After being moored for a quarter-century on Tacoma’s Blair Waterway, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ iconic former riverboat casino, the Emerald Queen, was tugged to Seattle on Thursday following a recent sale.

Details of the deal are under wraps, but the nearly 300-foot Mississippi style riverboat was sold to Spectral Crane and Marine, a Seattle-based equipment rental company of barges and marine assets, according to a statement from the Puyallup Tribal Council. The boat operated as a floating casino from 1997 to 2004. Now, it will be repurposed.

Owner of Spectral Crane and Marine, Boyer Halverson, said in a phone call Thursday that plans for the boat are not finalized, but it might be converted into a barge. Asked about the price of the sale, Halverson was mum.

“Oh, I can’t disclose that,” Halverson said. “I can tell you I probably paid too much.”

The Puyallup Tribal Council said in its statement that moving the riverboat will open up more of the Tribe’s port property for economic development. Before Thursday, it was docked near 2102 Alexander Ave. According to previous reporting from The News Tribune, the boat’s casino was closed in 2004 after the Port of Tacoma wanted to shut down Alexander Avenue for expansion. The Puyallup Tribe shuttered the riverboat and converted a hotel in Fife into a casino and hotel. Then in the late 2010s, the Tribe began building its $400 million casino that glows just off of Interstate 5.

“The riverboat served our Tribe well and laid the foundation for us to open and operate the two premier casinos in the Northwest,” the Puyallup Tribal Council said in a statement.

In recent years, the riverboat was a familiar sight at the Tribe’s annual July 4th fireworks show and vendor village, Firecracker Alley. It took place in the riverboat’s parking lot.

Before the sale, the riverboat was listed last year in Northwest Yachting Magazine. According to the publication, the 700,000-square-foot, four-deck boat was built in 1995 by Louisiana-based Quality Shipyard and Kehl River Boats at a cost of $15 million. A 1997 News Tribune story marking its opening reported that the Puyallup Tribe purchased the boat for $13 million and that the total project cost $21 million. It had a capacity of 2,000 people.

Calling it a “Cajun Gem,” Northwest Yachting wrote that the boat’s design was an homage to 19th century riverboating, directed not by a propeller but by a “giant wooden stern wheel” that could get the boat to a top speed of 10 knots thanks to two Cummins diesel engines. The publication said the boat’s most striking interior feature was a grand staircase that connected three decks in an atrium lit by a chandelier.

Halverson said the sale of the Emerald Queen riverboat was brought to him by a broker who had spoken with the Puyallup Tribe about it. The business owner said he walked through the vessel and its interior is still in good shape. He said he has an appointment at a shipyard in June to take another look at it in dry dock.

“I might have paid too much, but it’ll be OK,” Halverson said. “We can make something out of it.”