Time-lapse photos track Montreign casino construction

It”™s 10:41 a.m., Monday Feb. 1 and it”™s 50 degrees and overcast at the Montreign Resort Casino construction site in Thompson.

That”™s the way it starts out on time-lapse camera images posted by Empire Resorts Inc., the company building the $1.3 billion resort in Sullivan County in partnership with EPR Properties.

Anyone with an internet browser can view high-resolution images, from morning to night, through rain and snow and sunshine, from season to season, all the way up to the ribbon-cutting in two years.

Construction began about a year ago: cutting a road to the site, installing water and sewer and power  lines, and carving a huge pit out of a hill. The initial image shows materials piled around the site and heavy equipment positioned for work. Look closely, zoom in, and you will see workers going about their assigned tasks.

Eventually, you will see an 18-story casino and hotel. That hole in the ground that you see today will become a four-story underground parking garage that will form the foundation of the casino. The project also includes an entertainment village, golf course and indoor water park on other parts of the 1,700-acre site.

The company does not allow outsiders on the construction site, and people driving by can”™t see much from the road. Posting the photos allows the public ”“ including, presumably, future vacationers and gamblers ”“ to track progress effortlessly.

The photos “build excitement,” said Charles Degliomini, executive vice president of Empire Resorts.

The resort is in the Catskills, 63 miles northwest of White Plains.

The time-lapse photos can be seen at empireresorts.com or montreign.com.