New casino site approval sought

Back Bay casino venture advancing

BILOXI - Partners in a Back Bay casino venture have filed notice with the Mississippi Gaming Commission seeking site approval, but they will first ask Biloxi to rezone part of their 7.9 acres for a resort development.

The site is immediately east of Boomtown Casino. The developer is Bayview Ventures LLC, which is composed of a group of investors.

John Cooper Jr. of Scottsdale is the managing partner. The other partners are Tom Angelo of Las Vegas, Old Bayview LLC of Biloxi and Gedalia Partnership LP of Dallas.

“We intend to move forward with all deliberate speed,” said John Ed Ainsworth, the managing partner of Old Bayview. “We intend to be under construction as soon as any other new casino comes out of the ground.”

Gary Gollott Sr., state Sen. Tommy Gollott and Tyrone Gollott are partners in Old Bayview and own the casino site. The waterfront section of the site has been owned by the Gollott family for years. They bought adjacent parcels after the state allowed Coast casinos to come ashore.

“The casino, hotel development and amenities will be all located on the south side of Bayview Avenue,” Ainsworth said. “The north side will not be developed at this time. The shrimp plant will be removed and used for surface parking. That will be developed after the casino in a phase two.”

The plans call for about 65,000 square feet of gaming space with about 1,400 slot machines, 45 table games and seven poker tables.

Asking the Gaming Commission to declare land a legal site for gambling is the first step in getting a state permit for a casino. Developers must then present site development plans and prove financing before construction can begin.

The Gollott brothers are also landlords at other Coast casino sites. Sen. Gollott, a lead author of the law that legalized dockside gambling, abstained from all votes during last year’s special legislative session related to changing the law to allow casino sites on shore.

Source: Sun Herald

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Biloxi Casinos, Biloxi Hotels, Biloxi Mississippi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.