Casino news source: Vicksburg Post - http://www.vicksburgpost.com
Riverwalk casino to seek changes
By Danny Barrett Jr.
[05/23/07] Changes will be requested at the site of Vicksburg's smallest but most active planned casino, modifications termed “minor” by its officials.
Riverwalk Casino and Hotel will appear before the Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals June 5 to amend the special exception it won from the panel in 2005 dealing with parking.
The configuration of its lots was an issue when the project, originally named Magnolia Hills and Pot of Gold Casino, was first presented to city authorities for zoning approval. Developers John R. Barrett Jr. and Lee Seippel agreed to a redesign that moved patron parking casino and hotel and away from homes on Warrenton Road.
Though some homes that will overlook the site are now listed for sale, the changes are slight this time, the attorney for the development group said.
“We're just changing the angle in which it (the parking lot) sits,” said John Maxey.
Sticks marking places where soil borings have taken place outline the site, virtually next door to Rainbow Casino. In April, the development was given a green light to begin construction when its finances were approved by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
The project started out smallest in scope of Vicksburg's other three proposed casinos, but officials have said construction costs have placed the casino's overall cost at $100 million.
A group headed by Chicago real estate magnate Neil Bluhm was added as a secondary partner earlier in the year to help its financing. The firm, High River Gaming, will own 70 percent of the project, company executives have said.
Riverwalk will feature 80 rooms and 800 slot machines, smaller than both the 232-room, 1,500-slot Mississippi Bluffs development, planned barely a mile north on Warrenton Road, and the similarly sized casino and resort Lakes Entertainment Inc. plans to build a few miles south, between U.S. 61 South and the river.
Developers of Mississippi Bluffs plan an 18-hole golf course by the design firm of golf legend Hale Irwin, plus retail space and possibly a restaurant.
Lakes plans a $200 million development which could occupy 240 acres if company officials satisfy terms of a deal it reached with the City of Vicksburg to develop about 155 acres of right-of-way purchased from Kansas City Southern Railway.
If city officials deem the company's work insufficient, the land could become part of a bicycle path the city has expressed interest in establishing along rail lines KCS has abandoned.
Bluffs and Lakes developments have been granted extensions by state regulators, with each needing to present a financing package to MGC. Bluffs' deadline to do so is Jan. 18, 2008 and Lakes' is Feb. 15, 2009.
Both will sit on pilings atop the Mississippi River, instead of floating inside it, allowed by state laws passed two years ago.
Ameristar Casino, the market share leader in Vicksburg, began raising its vessel onto a concrete foundation in November and is expected to be completed in June, part of a $158 million expansion including more parking and amenities.
Vicksburg's casino market will become home to seven gaming facilities if all three proposed casinos are seen to completion. The existing four opened in an 11-month span in 1993 and 1994, beginning with Isle of Capri, which sold to Legends Gaming in 2006 and renamed DiamondJacks.
Horizon Casino was renamed when its parent company, Columbia-Sussex, purchased it from Harrah's Entertainment in 2003.
Rainbow has been listed for sale since October by its parent company, Bally Technologies.
CURRENT
• DiamondJacks - Opened in August 1993 as Isle of Capri, sold in 2006 to Legends Gaming LLC and renamed DiamondJacks
• Horizon Casino - Opened in November 1993 as Harrah's, sold in 2003 to Columbia Sussex and renamed Horizon
• Ameristar Casino - Opened in February 1994
• Rainbow Casino - Opened in July 1994
PROPOSED
• Lakes Entertainment Inc. - Casino not yet named, $200 million, 240 acres, 250 hotel rooms, 1,500 slots
• Mississippi Bluffs Development LLC - Mississippi Bluffs, $190 million, 40 acres, 232 hotel rooms, 1,500 slots
• Riverwalk Casino and Hotel - $100 million, 22 acres, 80 hotel rooms, 800 slots
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