Panel likely to approve casino
D’Iberville complex would include 400-room hotel, several restaurants
The Mississippi Gaming Commission is expected today to OK plans for a casino development in D’Iberville during a meeting at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi.
“I’m taking it to the commission as an approval,” said Larry Gregory, executive director of the commission.
The Mississippi Gaming Commission approved in July the casino site that is west of the I-110 bridge and on the Back Bay of Biloxi. “Coming off I-10, it would be the first casino site you get to before Biloxi,” Gregory said.
It would be the first casino in D’Iberville.
The development would include a 400-room hotel with five or six restaurants and a land-based casino, said Peter Simon, principal in West D’Iberville Development and owner of the site.
“We haven’t decided on the actual size of the casino,” he said.
Simon said he could not provide a figure for how much the development would cost to build and how many employees it would have.
Plans are to open the casino before Dec. 31, 2008, said Simon, a former senior vice president of business development for Mandalay Resort Group.
Simon said he hopes to take advantage of tax incentives created by the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 for nongaming portions of the development.
Richard Rose, D’Iberville city manager, said in July the city would welcome a casino on the Back Bay.
Residents, planners and others who met in design charrettes to brainstorm about rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf Coast voiced support for putting casinos in mixed-use developments along the waterfront in D’Iberville, Rose said.
Source: Clarion LedgerÂÂ