Palace is adding more gambling space, rooms
By TOM WILEMON
BILOXI - The Palace Casino plans to add 6,100 square feet to make room for 300 more slot machines, but longer term the resort will build a much bigger gambling floor.
Keith Crosby, the casino’s general manager, said he hopes to begin construction on the first phase of development as soon as he can get approval from the city. The plans will be presented to the Biloxi Planning Commission on April 6, he said.
The casino is in its eighth week of conceptual development for the longer-term build-out of the property.
“We’ve got a real clear vision of what we’re doing,” Crosby said. “We want to develop a billboard that’s consistent with our current architecture, yet at the same time continue to present the property in a boutique status, recognizing that being smaller with better service and a little bit more focused service was a niche we occupied before the storm. We’re going to return to doing that on land as opposed to water. What it boils down to is we lost a lot of amenities. We want to return them.”
The casino is looking to build 300 to 400 more rooms as well as 100,000 to 120,000 square feet for gambling, restaurants and entertainment, he said.
Wahoo’s, the Palace pool bar, will reopen on April 8.
“We’ve got 9,000 square feet under roof along with an outdoor grill that will serve Caribbean resort fare,” Crosby said. “We’ve enlarged the bathrooms, redesigned the whole area and added a quarter million dollars worth of landscaping.”
Crosby