Conn. Indian tribe seeking Biloxi site

The economic development arm of an American Indian tribe in Connecticut that owns what’s said to be the largest resort casino in the world hopes to open a casino resort on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation owns Foxwoods Resort Casino in southeastern Connecticut, and the tribe’s economic development company is negotiating to buy property in Biloxi for a casino resort, said Dan McDaniel, a Jackson gaming lawyer. “We’re in the middle of due diligence and finalizing the purchase agreement,” he said.

The tribe would enter the Mississippi gaming market as a commercial gaming company, he said.

“Tribal lands will not be involved,” he said. “They’ll pay the same taxes and undergo the same investigations as any other gaming company coming into the state.”

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation opened Foxwoods in 1986 as a bingo hall and has developed it into a successful casino resort. It includes 7,400 slots, 365 gaming tables, high-stakes bingo, racebook, 35 restaurants, 1,400 hotel rooms, 55,000 square feet of meeting space, 25 shops, two showrooms, a B.B. King nightclub and a Hard Rock Cafe.

Foxwoods Resort Casino employs 12,000 people and has paid more than $2.2 billion in taxes to the state of Connecticut since opening in 1992, said Gary Armentrout, chief development officer for Foxwoods Development Co.

Foxwoods Development Co. wants to purchase 15 acres in the middle of 266 acres owned by Broadwater Development LLC in Biloxi and have exclusive gaming rights for development, he said.

Harold L. Gater/The Clarion-Ledger

Gulf Coast businessmen Cotton Fore and Roy Anderson III, partners in Broadwater Development LLC, purchased the President Casino Broadwater Resort, which included a casino and hotel, in 2005.

Armentrout said the tribe’s initial plans for the site include a $400 million resort that would include a golf course, marina, condominium residences and retail shops. The project, when completed, would be $1.2 billion, he said.

Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said the Foxwoods proposed development fits the commission’s emphasis on economic development.

“They are looking at putting more of their investment in land-based amenities instead of the casino,” he said. “That’s what the commission has always pushed developers to do to attract tourists.”

The gaming site falls within a 161-acre conceptually planned unit development that takes in the entire Broadwater property, said Jerry Creel, director of community development for the city of Biloxi. The Biloxi City Council last month approved the planned unit development that also includes a second gaming site north of U.S. 90, he said.

Foxwoods Development Co. expects the Mississippi Gaming Commission to approve the gaming site at the commission’s May meeting, Armentrout said.

The tribe wants to expand and that’s why it has been eyeing the Biloxi market for six months, Armentrout said. “Biloxi is a major gaming market devastated by Hurricane Katrina that clearly has the potential to come back even bigger and stronger than pre-Katrina,” he said.

Foxwoods Development Co. also hopes to establish a $400 million casino in Philadelphia, Pa., he said. “We are one of five applicants for what will be two gaming licenses to be awarded by the state of Pennsylvania to Philadelphia,” he said.

Eddie Gibson, a member of the Choctaw Gaming Commission that regulates the two Mississippi casinos – Golden Moon and Silver Star – operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, said he had not heard about the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s plans to open a Coast casino.

Gibson said the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is “tops” as far as Indian gaming.

Late Gov. Kirk Fordice signed a compact with the Choctaws in 1992 that did not require the tribe to share revenue from its casinos with the state.

Gregory said the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is following an emerging trend of tribes diversifying into gaming markets outside their tribal jurisdictions. “You’re seeing that with tribes across the country,” he said.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and MGM Mirage, the company that owns Beau Rivage on the Gulf Coast and Gold Strike in Tunica, announced Tuesday they have agreed to a strategic alliance that would include projects at Foxwoods Resort Casino and the development of additional gaming and nongaming projects at Foxwoods and outside of Connecticut, Gregory said.

Source: The Clarion Ledger 

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