Foxwoods Still In Hunt For Casino

According to the project manager for the redevelopment of the Broadwater Hotel site, Foxwoods Development Co. has not pulled out of its deal to build a casino there. Mark Calvert, of investment banking firm Cascade Capital, said Foxwoods’ 60-day exclusive window to conduct due diligence ran out within the last 10 days.

Foxwoods is looking at an approximately 16-acre site on the 261-acre property being developed by W.C. “Cotton” Fore and Roy Anderson III. “We said we’d entertain other offers, so we have four other players talking to us about the possibility of doing the deal,” Calvert said. He said he’s still working with Foxwoods daily. An official at Foxwoods declined to comment, referring questions to the tribe’s public-relations office in Connecticut. Phones messages left there were not returned Wednesday afternoon.

The tribe had previously touted a plan to invest $400 million or more in Biloxi. The world’s largest casino, Foxwoods, is in southeast Connecticut on the lands of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. The complex employs 12,000 people and has 7,400 slot machines, 365 table games, 35 restaurants, 25 retail outlets, two showrooms and 80 poker tables. Foxwoods is competing to acquire a casino license in Philadelphia, Pa., and is working with another American Indian tribe in California on a project there.

Officials had said the casino here would operate like non-Indian casinos in Mississippi, paying the same taxes and being subject to the same rules and regulations. The Mississippi Gaming Commission ruled last month that its location north of U.S. 90 is a legal gambling site, after developers finished ironing out a lease with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office for waterfront property required to link to the inland sites.

Calvert, who said demolition is expected to begin at the site by the end of the month, would not identify the other four companies that are now involved. Beverly Martin, executive director of the Mississippi Casino Operators Association, said she’s not surprised by that fact. “It’s a prime site,” she said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me a bit that somebody else would come in and scoop it up.” She said it might be hard for other operators to match Foxwoods’ financial clout, however. Martin said many companies like to throw around talk about developments in the $1 billion neighborhood. “Foxwoods is really one of the ones that can pull it off,” she said.

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