Beau Rivage scurries to reopen

A flurry of carpenters, electricians, painters and other workers are at work inside Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, which is 67 days away from reopening on Aug. 29.

“It’s still very much a construction site, but it’s taking shape,” said Mary Cracchiolo, director of public relations at Beau Rivage. “The carpet is down on the casino floor, and they’re putting the bases in for the slot machines.”

About 3,800 employees will go to work when Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi re-opens on Aug. 29, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that devastated the gaming industry along the Gulf Coast.

“We have more than 60 percent of our employees coming back,” Cracchiolo said. “We are still hiring and have a lot of opportunity to offer. Our employment center is open, and our Website www.workatbeau.com has all the jobs posted.”

As of Wednesday, four casinos had reopened on the Coast – IP, New Palace, Isle of Capri and Treasure Bay, all in Biloxi.

With just three casino open, gross gaming revenue for the Coast was $62.9 million in May compared to $113 million in May 2004 when there were 12 casinos open on the Coast.

About 5,000 employees are back at work, said Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission. Before Katrina, the gaming industry on the Coast employed 15,000 people. “We’re hoping to have 12,000 people back to work by the end of the year,” he said.

MGM-Mirage, parent company of Beau Rivage, invested $800 million in the resort before Katrina, and the company is investing “well over $1 billion” to re-open, Cracchiolo said.

“We’ll be bringing back some things that customers loved as well as some surprises,” she said. “It’ll be completely revamped and updated.”

The resort’s 1,740 hotel rooms, which include 95 suites, are receiving a fresh look with new furniture, fixtures, linens and plasma TVs, she said.

About 1,200 hotel rooms, eight of the 12 retail outlets and eight of the 13 restaurants will be ready for the reopening, she said.

“We’ll have a lion’s share of the resort open,” Cracchiolo said. “It won’t be 100 percent, but we felt like it was important to reopen and put people back to work.”

Reservations are being accepted at1-888-567-6667 or 1-228-386-7444 and online at www.beaurivage.com.

Jay Dean, director of orchestral activities at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, said Beau Rivage was his favorite hotel casino before Katrina, and he looks forward to seeing it again in its glory. “The Beau Rivage set the standard for not only the finest quality hotel in the state and the finest quality entertainment, but it also brought a tremendous amount of class to the Coast,” he said.

New to Beau Rivage will be Olives, a dark wood and distressed leather decor restaurant that will feature Mediterranean cuisine such as wood-oven flatbreads, homemade pastas and rotisserie-prepared meats; and BR Prime, a fine dining steakhouse. Those will reopen after Aug. 29, Cracchiolo said.

Fallen Oak, a Tom Fazio-designed golf course that is in Biloxi and about 15 miles north of the resort, is set to open in November, she said.

Also new at Beau Rivage will be a poker room and a coinless gaming floor. “That’s the big trend,” Cracchiolo said, explaining each slot machine will pay off with a ticket that can be redeemed rather than in tokens.

Gregory said he’s visited Beau Rivage and it’s on target to reopen on Aug. 29.

Before the casino reopens, Gaming Commission personnel will check to make sure all slots and table games work as they should. They will also check to make sure all money, chips and dice are accounted for and that surveillance equipment is working properly.

“I’ll go there a week ahead of the opening and get updates from the staff, the senior level executives, public safety officials, the Department of Health and make sure it is ready for the public,” Gregory said.

The reopening of Beau Rivage sends a message that the Gulf Coast is a viable place to invest and reinvest and that developers intend for it to become a destination resort, Gregory said. “If Beau Rivage had not come back, we probably wouldn’t be having this phase of growth we’re experiencing now, on the Gulf Coast,” he said.

Susan Varnes, chief operating officer at Treasure Bay Casino and Hotel in Biloxi that reopened this week with 81 slots and plans to add 500 more in October, said she expects the reopening of Beau Rivage to grow the Gulf Coast gaming market.

“I think it will help us,” she said. “I think the impact will be similar to what it was when it opened for the first time.”

When Beau Rivage opened in 1999, gaming revenue on the Gulf Coast increased 35 percent over that of the previous year, Cracchiolo said.

Source:  The Clarion-Ledger

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