BILOXI, Miss. – Olivia Boglin stood in her yard, staring down at a pile of Sheetrock. Just staring in the Mississippi heat, dabbing the sweat off her forehead with a wadded-up tissue.
A block away, a guy was riding a bicycle slow, so the front wheel swerved with each crank of the pedals.
The heat, the humidity and the noon hour had everything almost at a standstill.
Olivia looked surprised and a little worried at a stranger approaching when I walked up. I introduced myself and asked how she was doing. She thought for a minute.
“We’re doing better,” she said.
IMPROVING
And so it is in Biloxi. They’re doing better, more than a year after deadly Hurricane Katrina came through. But they have a long way to go.
Just a few blocks from Olivia’s once-gutted red-brick home, the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino was rocking. Gamblers tossed cash on the tables, guests waited in long lines at the front desk, the buffet line stretched into the lobby. Gaming is back. Most of the area’s casinos have reopened, and two new ones are planned, including the Hard Rock, which was days away from opening when Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005.
The tables and slots were lively at major gaming houses in October, even during the day.
At the Grand Biloxi Casino, Hotel and Spa, a Harrah’s property, the new casino is open in the former Grand Casino Bayview Hotel. The refurbished hotel rooms are pretty and contemporary, with Sony CD Dream Machines at bedside. In the gym, the latest Nautilus exercise equipment is yours for $10 a day and, in the salon, they were particularly proud of the massage chairs at the shampoo sinks.
The only Starbucks on casino row (the several miles of casinos along Beach Boulevard) is in the Grand’s lobby, decked out in dark, sleek furniture beneath a sunlit dome.
Boomtown Casino was just as busy, but the atmosphere was decidedly different. Guests are greeted by “Warren the Longhorn Bull,” a stuffed … well, he’s a steer. A placard in front of Warren says in part, “When Boomtown opened on Biloxi’s Back Bay, Warren became our very first employee.” It continues with a long story about Warren fighting the hurricane. You get the idea. Read the rest of this entry »
Bayshore Drive owners plan condos
BILOXI – Bayshore Drive owners seek condo zoning
The owners of almost 17 acres on the opposite side of Interstate 110 from the IP Casino are asking the city to rezone their properties for condominiums.
Among the property owners is the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Trust, which owns the casino. The other applicants are mostly people who lived along Bayshore Drive before Hurricane Katrina. The properties front Back Bay, west of the interstate.
“I think that would be a good spot for a condominium project,” said Mayor A.J. Holloway. “Everybody has moved out. I don’t know of anybody living in that area or who is planning on going back.”
Among the applicants is the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Southern District Commissioner Wayne Brown said the state agency was probably included because it has excess property from the purchase of land for the Interstate corridor.
A public hearing on the rezoning request is set for 2 p.m. on Dec. 21 before the Biloxi Planning Commission.
The area is currently zoned for single-family residential use, high-density business use and community business use. The applicants are seeking hospitality business status, which allows condominiums. The rezoning would not allow casinos.
Key Largo Holdings, a separate legal entity from the IP casino that is nevertheless affiliated with the casino, has been buying parcels on the east side of the interstate, where the city does allow casinos. The IP uses some of the property for excess parking.
The IP has not announced any expansions, but the casino recently advertised for a director of construction and a construction-cost estimator. The job description included “recent experience in construction estimation from the ground up,” and stated “Prior hotel/resort familiarity in development or construction is a major feature.”
Source: Biloxi Sun Herald
Mississippi resort and casino seeks visitors to help rebound from Katrina
COLONIE — A Mississippi resort and casino operator has met with Albany International Airport officials on plans to offer nonstop charter flights to the Gulf Coast as early as this winter.
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino already offers packages from southern cities to the Gulfport/Biloxi Regional Airport on AirTran Airways. Beau Rivage reopened Aug. 29 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the area just a year earlier.
Owner MGM Mirage spent $500 million on repairs to the hotel and casino complex, which employs 3,800 people.
Now, with high-rise condominiums replacing wrecked homes along the beachfront, the resort’s management is pitching the idea of charter flights from Albany and other Northeast cities as it attempts to rebuild business.
“They feel they have a resort area that offers not only gaming but a beautiful beach and golf,” airport spokesman Doug Myers said Friday.
Las Vegas, he said, doesn’t offer the beach, while Florida doesn’t offer the gaming, so resort officials think they’ll have an edge on marketing the region.
Longtime Capital Region travel agent Carl Mitchell, of Currier Travel in Colonie, thinks the flights could succeed.
“Southwest (Airlines) set the precedent when they started the nonstop service to Las Vegas,” Mitchell said. “The potential exists. It all depends on the pricing and the accommodations.”
Myers said the charter flights likely would be aboard 737s or similar full-size jets. Smaller regional jets, he said, might not have the necessary space if they have to carry dozens of sets of golf clubs.
It’s not clear whether AirTran or another carrier would provide the charter service. Albany is among about four dozen cities AirTran is considering expanding into, according to an online poll it is conducting. The airline plans to start service from Stewart International Airport on Jan. 11.
Beau Rivage also draws such entertainers as Wayne Newton, The Four Tops, Olivia Newton John and Boyz II Men, and touts its four-diamond award from the AAA.
Myers said the charter plans are still preliminary, and that no decisions to start service have been made. Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.
Source: Times Union
