Elk Grove’s Sky River Casino will have a new, 250,000-square-foot parking area before Oct. 31.

This new, $1.6 million parking lot is being constructed by the 26-year-old Sacramento business, Martin Brothers Construction, which is owned by Elk Grove resident Felipe Martin.

He is also a candidate for the Elk Grove City Council District 2 seat in this November’s election. His opponents are Rod Brewer and Michelle Kile.

In an interview with the Citizen last week, Martin mentioned that his company won the bid for the project on Sept. 23 and began working on the site two weeks later.

He noted that the purpose of the project is to help alleviate the issue with casino guests parking their cars on residential streets in the area.

“This is one of the things that they’re doing to try to (relieve the concerns of neighbors),” he said. “It’s a fast-track project and we’re going to be working on it very diligently to get it done that quick. So, it requires several crews, and manning up and getting it done.”

The new parking lot will fill a 6-acre area on the southwest side of the casino property, which is owned by the Wilton Rancheria – Sacramento County’s only federally recognized American Indian tribe. The new parking lot will have about 500 parking stalls, Martin said.

Martin added that his company was the runner-up on the project to build the casino’s current, much larger parking lot.

“This time around, they came back to us, got a price from us, got a price from (another company) and decided to utilize our bid, because we were more economical than they were,” he said.

Martin mentioned that his company has many years of experience in constructing parking lots.

“This is by far not a large project,” he said. “It’s good-sized project, but we’ve done much larger projects than this (casino parking lot).”

During its more than quarter-century existence, Martin Brothers Construction has built more than 200 parking lots, including the parking lot at the District56 center and Pleasant Grove Elementary School’s parking lot.

Martin told the Citizen that his company’s ability to confidently perform fast-track projects like Sky River’s new parking lot project is an example of the type of leadership he could bring to the City Council.

“Sky River came to me and asked if we could do the parking lot, and we were able to accomplish what they wanted done in the time frame that they want it done,” he said. “And really that’s important, because it’s all about the community. They’re listening to what the community is saying and we’re able to perform and give the community what they need.

“This is the type of leadership that you can expect is action in all essence. So, as I said, previously, vision without execution is hallucination. So, we need to make sure that we have a vision, execute on that vision, and make things happen for the city of Elk Grove.”