COWLITZ INDIAN RESERVATION — After nearly a year of construction and even longer in planning and legal proceedings, the Ilani Casino Resort is taking shape.

The $510 million, 368,000-square-foot casino sits west of Exit 16 on Interstate 5, with three Cascade peaks in the distance. A newly dubbed road, Cowlitz Way, cuts in front. But the imposing center remains surrounded by gravel and construction crews.

“We are close to 75 percent completed,” Ilani president and general manager Kara Fox-LaRose said.

The project, jointly developed by the Cowlitz Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe of Indians in Connecticut, broke ground in January. Tribal representatives now say the project, plus a $32 million upgrade to the nearby freeway interchange, is on pace for a scheduled April opening.

Fox-LaRose and other Ilani executives — the casino currently boasts just 12 full-time staffers — led a tour of the gaming facility last week.

The project is still far from matching some of its grandiose concept art, but it’s well underway. Construction crews move between scaffolds around the casino, surrounded by the sounds of whirring saws and the gravel-flattening tires of heavy machinery.