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Is Natchez hitting the casino jackpot?
Published Sunday, July 22, 2007
NATCHEZ — Gambling on new casinos might pay off for Natchez.
Two companies looking at bringing in casinos are on their way to bringing their projects to fruition.
The city recently signed an option agreement with Lane Company, which reserves the land for Natchez Enterprises, LLC, a division of Lane, for six months.
Natchez Enterprises wants to develop a casino and riverfront development under Roth Hill along the river just north of the Isle of Capri casino.
Meanwhile, Emerald Star Casino-Natchez, LLC, is rebuilding the former Ramada Inn Hilltop, just south of the Mississippi River Bridge, as a new hotel and making plans for a casino under the hotel’s hill.
If Natchez Enterprises signs a lease contract with the city, the city would seek to extend the maximum 50-year lease by 49 years.
A long lease would mean a better investment for the company, Lane representative Ted Doody said.
“The longer the lease is, the more value it holds,” Doody said.
But the longer lease would need special permission from the legislature.
“We would be asking (the legislature) for local and private legislation,” Mayor Phillip West said.
Since the state doesn’t allow a lease beyond 50 years, he said, that legislation would pertain just to Natchez and Lane.
“Different situations are unique,” West said. “When there’s a unique and rational basis of something of this nature, the legislature would consider local and private legislation appropriate.”
Natchez Enterprises is working with engineers to outline what the development will include, beyond the promised casino and botanical gardens, Doody said.
Doody said he could not share details on how the company would meet the state’s requirement of land-based investments to match the casino. The company has not bought any Natchez property yet, he said.
For the immediate future, the next step is in Natchez Enterprises’ hands, getting approval from the state gaming commission, West said.
That approval would mean they could start the construction process, Mississippi Gaming Commission Deputy Director Allen Godfrey said.
After meeting city building requirements, “They’ve got to have their final plans and financing in place,” Godfrey said.
They would then apply for a license to operate.
Down the river, Emerald Star has already received approval to proceed, Godfrey said, but have not yet received a license to operate.
One of the key steps toward making that casino a reality is to create retaining walls and work on the shoreline, which should start soon, Emerald Star President Bill Bayba said.
“That will probably take six or seven months,” Bayba said.
The boat that will house the casino is being finished in New Orleans, he said.
The hotel will likely open in January or February, and the group hopes to open the casino in April.
The agreement between the city and Natchez Enterprises doesn’t worry Bayba, he said.
“We’re going to be the second casino in that market (in addition to Isle of Capri),” Bayba said. “If (Lane) chooses to be third, that’s up to them.”
Jack Sours, general manager of the Isle of Capri, Natchez’ only currently operating casino, said he didn’t see that the city’s option agreement with Lane changed much.
Sours has maintained from the start that the Natchez casino market, made up mostly of locals, won’t hold up under the weight of two more casinos.
“There’s just not enough demand for it,” he said. “I guess we’ll wait and see how the market plays out.”
Natchez Enterprises isn’t worried, Doody said.
“We’ve solicited multiple market analysis and feasibility reports from analysts in the industry,” Doody said. “All reports indicate plenty of room for our proposed development in the Natchez market.”
The company will work to draw customers from outside the local market, he said.
“We’re going to offer visitors an alternative (casino),” he said.
More casinos will mean more jobs, too, Doody said.
“We’ll draw from the local market as much as possible,” he said.
“We’ll bring trained professionals from other markets to fill in the gaps.
Doody said he couldn’t talk about the revenue the casino might make.
“I don’t think we want to comment on that right now,” Doody said. “It’s kind of a touchy subject.”
The casino would likely employ 350 to 400 people once it was up and running, he said.
Along with jobs that will create income tax, the casino would provide the state-mandated roughly 12 percent gambling tax, a large share of which would go to the city and county, he said.
“The development we’re going to put on the ground is going to be a significant increase in the overall revenue income for the city,” Doody said.
The casino might mean less revenue for the Isle right away, but a second casino would help in the long run, he said.
“The presence of two casinos in Natchez will grow the overall market and create a situation where both casinos should benefit,” Doody said.
In addition to tax revenues, if Natchez Enterprises signed the proposed contract with the city, the company would pay $1 million each year to lease the land.
They would also donate $1 million to the city “when the doors open” and $225,000 each year after.
Emerald Star General Manager Wendy Grandin said she could not predict the revenues the casino and hotel might make, but that a second or even third casino would bring more business.
“One or two more casinos puts (Natchez) on the map as a destination,” Grandin said.
And Natchez as a destination would mean more revenue all around, including the Isle, she said.
Emerald Star, too, plans to hire roughly 400 employees. The company would hire locally but would also hire those who had worked in the field before, Marketing Director Baxter Lee said.
“One of the things that was a result of the catastrophes that were hurricanes Katrina and Rita was that a lot of displaced experienced gaming people are out there looking for work,” Lee said.
Comments
Posted by Teach4Peace (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 8:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Very well stated, where ARE the quality, well paying jobs, or at least decent paying jobs with longevity in their pockets?
Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope the hotels they build will be like the ones they have in Vicksburg, the MS Gulf Coast, and Tunica. I love to go to those places and stay in their hotels. Some of those hotels are like small communities within themselves. I don't care much for the gambling, as I mainly just like to look, but I have been known to take $20 and play a few slots just for entertainment. I would have spent that much going to the movies, or on some other form of entertainment, and a couple of times I've won a hundred or two. Beaux Rivage has a wonderful and beautiful hotel. And, the shops inside the hotels are great. I've found that, sometimes, staying in casino hotels can be less expensive than some of the other hotels. Usually, there's way more to do than just sleep in the room at these hotels, especially the ones with the theaters, big name entertainment, and comedy and broadway shows. And, it's certainly worth mentioning the multiple dining choices offered by many of these hotels.
I always find it interesting when I go to the out of town casinos and run into the people from Natchez that had said they wouldn't be caught dead in our casino here, lol. Even some of the ones that had voted against our getting a casino and preached how bad it would be for our city have taken advantage of the RV travel trailer parks and buffets offered by some of those casinos. One Natchez man I ran into, as I was getting off the shuttle one day, said he didn't go to this one here because he felt like such a hypocrite for having spoken so badly against it coming here; yet, there he was enjoying those out of town casinos with his church group in their travel trailers and RVs.
Posted by Preacher (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 9:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's nice to see a couple of clear thinking folks in Natchez. The city has already made money on the last 3 or 4 casino proposals. They get $100,000 every time one makes an application even if it never gets off the ground. All this commotion is simply speculation. I've never believed Natchez could ever support 2 casinos, and still don't believe it. It will be disappointing to see the extra casino advertizing which will only draw more suckers and destroy more families. Either way, Natchez will roll snake eyes on this one.
Posted by ghost (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 10:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
preacher.....natchez will be supporting 3 casinos
Posted by JDR (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 12:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
this can only bring a smile to those payday loan/pawn shop guys faces. one casino is fine but 2 or 3 is absurd.
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well said nenernener
Posted by ghost (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 5:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I figured that there would be more opposition about all this. I mean, people are raising cane about a coal gasification plant that would bring desperate jobs for local people. As i said before and some of you disagreed....these casino's are not going to hire very many local people. How many people in Natchez do you think have gaming experience? Ha, the article said that they would "fill in the gap with trained professionals from other makets" after they draw from the local market. BIG GAP!......the accelerated decline of Snatchez begins.
Posted by blaqbuddaflyy (anonymous) on July 22, 2007 at 7:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have the see the casinos actually up and in runnung in Natchez before I ever believe it.
Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 12:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Why can Vicksburg, Biloxi and the Gulf Coast, Tunica (which used to just be a bean farm), and Philadelphia all support more than one casino, but Natchez can't? Why can't Natchez get a waterpark like Philadelphia? If you want Natchez to attrack tourist, you need more than old homes for them to look at, and something for their kids to do.
Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 12:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
attrack=attract
Posted by gizmo (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 9:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have been following the Natchez Casino development since the beginning, and I think that you locals should be aware of the background of the partners of Emerald Star Casino.
Here is a link to one of their previous "investments".
http://ldfnews.com/article.php?story=200...
Posted by brandi_25 (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 1:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
nenernener- i couldnt have said it better myself..you are so right.
Posted by FamilyofGod (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 10:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Development? Growth? One thing is for sure, Casinos will tolerate no growth or development but their own. They are like weeds in a garden that seek to take over everything everywhere until nothing else remains but more weeds.
Drive down Silver Street and check out what used to make Natchez unique. You will be disappointed, because it is not there. It has all been crowded out by the economic bloodsucker that is parked at the bottom.
The deck of the restaraunt where I spent many evenings eating ribs and steaks, courting my wife and watching the river roll by hasn't seen a customer now in years. Ditto for next door. Everything else is the boat, is connected to the boat, or is hunkered down in the shadow of the boat. It is ALL... the boat.
Where Silver Street once had 2 way traffic and you could STILL park on both sides of the street is now one way and essentially without parking at all. It has lost all resemblance and flavor to the little piece of history that it once was, and it exists now only to feed the boat. Oh I forgot, you CAN park at the top of the hill and let the Casino trolley bring you down. To the boat.
No doubt the new casino will use it's vantage point high on the bluff where the Ramada once stood to erect tasteful signage that will be unique to Natchez. Nothing like the gaudy ultimate-tacky "Vegas" motif. Surely. Oh it will be a fine first sight of Natchez for visitors approaching from the west without a doubt. I can't wait to see it.
A woman who sells herself is called a whore. What do you call a city that does the same? Natchez?
Posted by ghost (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 10:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
well said FamilyofGod. I use to live in Baton Rouge, and they were worrying about if Baton Rouge could support three casino's. So how on Earth can this wasteland called Natchez even consider supporting three casino's? 85% of the employee's of these boats will be brought in from other area's. Sure they will hire local people for janitor positions and housekeepers. All this makes me sick....im moving away from here soon so good luck to all that remains here because you will not recognize Natchez anymore.
Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 23, 2007 at 11:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bus loads of retired people will be coming to the casinos.
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