Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday went to Bell Gardens to help campaign contributor Bicycle Casino celebrate the pending construction of its new luxury hotel.

Appearing with State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Long Beach) during a ceremony at the construction site, Brown said he was pleased that the future 100-room Bicycle Casino Hotel would be first luxury hotel in the mid-cities region of south Los Angeles County.

The casino, which estimates that its revenue contributes nearly half of the Bell Gardens’ general fund, expects the hotel project to create 300 jobs during construction, and about 250 full-time hotel jobs when in operation.

The $45 million, seven-story facility will include 15,000 square feet of event and meeting space. The project’s manager is Brindle Development of Marina del Rey. Ground breaking is scheduled for next month, with completion expected by 2015.

“This is a wonderful and elegant investment in Bell Gardens, a special place that many more people will now come to know and appreciate,” Brown said in a statement. In his remarks, Lara spoke about the 16 percent unemployment rate in Bell Gardens and the need for the jobs being created by the project.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Bicycle Casino, which opened in 1984 and offers poker and Asian gambling games, gave $37,000 to Brown’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and made an additional $14,700 contribution more recently that can go toward a re-election campaign.