Maxine Velasquez says 2025 is ‘a year of growth’ for Laguna Development Corp.

Maxine Velasquez remembers when officials with Churchill Downs Inc. came calling about the potential sale of Laguna Development Corp.’s Kentucky racetrack and gaming facility, Ellis Park Racing and Gaming.

Velasquez and two of her staff met with CDI’s executives in an Owensboro, Kentucky, hotel not long after. A deal quickly followed.

Velasquez’s Laguna Development Corp., Laguna Pueblo’s business development arm, bought the racetrack in 2019 for $11 million. It sold to CDI just a few years later, in 2022. The price tag: $79 million.

“We were able to bring all that money back to my tribal community,” said Velasquez, president and CEO of Laguna Development Corp., which runs the Pueblo’s casinos, entertainment and hospitality, food and beverage establishments, travel centers and gas stations. “We’re proud of that — to bring that money home, put it in New Mexico and hire New Mexicans to do our upgrades for all of our facilities.”

Velasquez said Laguna used the money to upgrade Route 66 Casino Hotel’s Legends Theater, expand its eatery Laguna Burger — which it also plans to open in the Bricklight District near the University of New Mexico next month — and help the organization become debt-free.

“We’ve redefined ourselves. We got back to our core competencies, and now it’s a year of growth,” Velasquez said. “So we’re out there now looking for deals, out there looking for expansion, not only New Mexico but throughout the country. … We’re in a very good position right now as a company.”

What are your pet peeves?

“It’s a lack of commitment. It’s inefficiencies. It’s a lack of respect or effort. And it’s having a negative mind or being closed-minded.”

Who inspires you?

“It’s not a person that inspires me. It’s the qualities of different people out there that inspire me. Those that have my core values, which (are) being authentic, having integrity, being honest, being collaborative and working hard.”

What drives you?

“I’m driven by helping my community. I’m driven by having excellence in anything I do. I’m driven by my team to do this job. I have an amazing executive staff of about 13 folks, and they’re all experts in their field — and we work well together as a team; it drives me to build businesses and the challenge every day of doing well for my community. ... We employ, as Laguna Pueblo, not only tribal members, (but) New Mexicans, and so we’re contributing to the economy. So I’m driven by making New Mexico better.”

When you find yourself in a challenging situation on the job, how do you work through it?

“I’m very methodical. I pull in my legal training from that perspective. And, you know, when things get hard, assess the situation, define what the issue is, call in and collaborate with my team and all my experts, and figure out how we’re going to handle it, and then be decisive about it, and then evaluate how that decision came out.”

What types of hobbies and activities are you involved in outside of work?

“It’s important for me to stay active. I love to RV. I love to hike. I lift weights a lot. I do a lot of rowing machine exercises. I do martial arts. I golf a lot. … I play softball with my girls; we’ve played for 30 years together. … I’m also continuing to learn to play the guitar — I think it’s important to have music in my life.”

What are some of your guilty pleasures?

“I love binge-watching Netflix. I love binge-watching sports. I love eating — like just having some great food. …I love East Indian food.”