Casinos buying up what’s left of Point
It’s like assembling a jigsaw puzzle
By TOM WILEMON
tewilemon@sunherald.com
BILOXI - It was as close to old Biloxi as you can find on the Point.
Live oaks catch the breeze. Three men shooting the breeze around a trailered fishing boat. Crab traps neatly stacked. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Kind of Man” playing on the radio.
The only thing missing was the houses.
“It’ll never be the same,” said Ronald Baker Jr., looking up at Grand Casino Biloxi.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed the fishing cottages of Point Cadet and casinos are buying up what’s left.
Harrah’s Entertainment, the largest casino company in the world, will reopen the Grand on Thursday. With more than 800 slot machines and 28 table games, the casino will be smaller than the IP, the Isle of Capri and Boomtown.
Harrah’s isn’t content to be a small player. Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman said his company would build something “spectacular” if Mississippi would allow casinos to move ashore. Now that the state law has changed, billion-dollar-plus plans are being made. Property is being acquired, parcel by parcel, as Harrah’s assembles the footprint it needs. With several tiny lots, some of them owned by multiple heirs, it’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Grand Casino has bought land as far north as Howard Avenue and as far west as where the Boys & Girls Club of the Gulf Coast headquarters once stood. Five of the property transfers have been recorded, but people in the neighborhood said there are options on others. If all the properties in between are bought, the Grand could end up owning three or four city blocks - enough room for more than one casino.
Anthony Sanfilippo, president of Harrah’s operations in the central United States, said Thursday’s reopening of the Grand is the first phase of his company’s plans for Biloxi.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the Grand opening up on Thursday,” Sanfilippo said. “I think people are going to find it a terrific casino. It looks and feels as if it was built from the ground up to accommodate the casino and the restaurants we have put in place. It’s either new construction or remodeled construction at the facility. We have brought back 1,500 associates to work, with 95 percent of them returning Grand employees from the Mississippi Coast.”
Harrah’s is under contract to acquire the Casino Magic Biloxi property and is buying smaller parcels as well.
“Concurrently, as we have been working to bring the Grand back into operation in Biloxi, we have continued to work on our longer-term plans for the future development of Biloxi. Part of that has included the purchase of property that we think will allow us to utilize the already existing footprint of property that we have on the Gulf Coast. We continue to be very bullish on the long-term growth and development in Biloxi.”
Baker lives on Oak Street directly behind the casino.
“I’m just waiting to see what happens,” he said. The land is owned by his father, Ronald Baker Sr., who grew up on Deer Island, rode out Hurricane Camille on Oak Street and moved to another home on Howard Avenue. He and five sons all lost their homes to Katrina, said his wife, Velma Baker. But her husband saved the King Arthur, his shrimp boat, by taking it to Fort Bayou and staying with it through the storm.
“We’re sitting on a fence waiting on whatever,” she said.
Harrah’s is not the only casino company buying land on Point Cadet. Isle of Capri Casinos and Golden Nugget also have bought several parcels on the southern tip of Point Cadet. Developers and land speculators already own sites on Clay Point north of the Palace Casino.
The Isle of Capri and the Golden Nugget, which would be new to the Biloxi market, appear to be playing a game of checkers as they acquire land. Both casinos are vying for waterfront owned by the city of Biloxi that either must control for a new casino operation.
Joseph Bui owns two of the few structures on Point Cadet left standing after the storm. One is Biloxi Auto Repair. The other is Maria’s Laundromat and Alteration, the second floor of which is his home.
Representatives of the Grand have approached him once, Bui said.
“I’m not interested to sell yet,” he said. “We have been here 20-something years. My business is good. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Ronald Baker Jr. doesn’t know what the future holds, either.
“You don’t want to leave the water,” he said. “We’re all fishermen.”