| Margaritaville Resort Biloxi | |
| Former Names: | Casino Magic Biloxi |
| Location: | Biloxi, Mississippi |
| Address: | 195 Beach Boulevard |
| Opened Date: | June 5, 1993 (as Casino Magic) June 23, 2016 (as Margaritaville) |
| Closing Date: | August 28, 2005 (as Casino Magic) |
| Rooms: | 373 |
| Owner: | Biloxi Lodging |
Margaritaville Resort Biloxi is a resort hotel in Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It previously operated with a dockside casino as Casino Magic Biloxi Casino & Hotel, until it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The property has a 373-room hotel, located on of land.[1]
Casino Magic and its neighbors, the Isle of Capri Biloxi and Grand Casino Biloxi made up a district known as "Casino Row".[2]
Casino Magic Corp., operator of a casino by the same name in the Gulf Coast town of Bay St. Louis, unveiled plans in January 1993 for a second casino barge, to be located in Biloxi next to the Isle of Capri casino at Point Cadet. The casino would be three stories, with a companion five-story floating parking garage.[3] The casino opened on June 5,[4] at a cost of $55 million.[5] Additional space opened in December, bringing the total to of gaming, with 1,160 slot machines, 69 table games, and a keno parlor.[6]
Regulations required Casino Magic to build a 250-room hotel or spend at least a quarter of its investment on land, but the company met this requirement by developing its Bay St. Louis property, where it built a hotel, marina, RV park, restaurants, and a golf course.[7] Without such amenities, the Biloxi casino largely relied on bus tours and day-trippers from nearby states.[8] A $9-million parking garage was built in 1994, with plans to build a $15-million hotel on top of it,[9] but the company wavered on those plans because of the high expense.[10] In 1995 it bought Casino One Corp., which held a lease and option on of land adjacent to Casino Magic, from the Gaming Corporation of America for $13 million in stock. The land was initially earmarked for parking, with a possible hotel and retail complex in the future.
Finally, though, the company pressed forward with the hotel on top of the parking garage, part of a $22-million plan begun in 1996, including a new facade and restaurant.[11] The 378-room hotel opened on May 1, 1998.[12] The company hoped it would help attract more high-end players from among the new overnight guests drawn by expanded jet service at the Gulfport-Biloxi Airport.
In October 1998, the property came under the ownership of Hollywood Park, Inc. (later Pinnacle Entertainment), which bought Casino Magic Corp. for $340 million.[13] Pinnacle quickly sold off the Bay St. Louis property, along with its Boomtown Biloxi casino, enabling it to focus resources on Casino Magic Biloxi.[14] Plans included two new parking garages to be built jointly with the Isle of Capri and Grand Casino,[15] and an additional 300-room hotel, possibly to be developed with Jimmy Buffett under his Margaritaville brand.[16] Construction plans for the new hotel were pushed back to 2006, though, while Pinnacle focused on building the L'Auberge du Lac Resort in Louisiana.[17]
Planning for a hurricane strike began early in the property's history. The company hoped to install an anchoring system in Biloxi's Back Bay, where the barges could weather a storm away from the open sea, but the plan was rejected by local officials who feared the vessels could become debris, and damage homes or bridges.[18] [19] Instead, Casino Magic installed a massive mooring system and acquired a submersible barge that could be sunk offshore from the barges to act as a breakwater.[20] The first hurricane to strike the region after the opening of casinos was Hurricane Georges in 1998, a Category 2 storm which caused $2.5 million in damage to Casino Magic.[21]
In 2005, with Hurricane Katrina approaching, the state ordered all coastal casinos to close on August 28.[22] The storm made landfall the next day, and the storm surge carried the Casino Magic barge 400 feet from its mooring spot,[23] leveling a pawn shop across Beach Boulevard,[24] and sections of the hotel building were destroyed.[25]
Pinnacle initially said it would rebuild the casino, but later said it might instead put the insurance settlement money into its two casinos being developed in St. Louis,[26] Lumière Place and River City Casino. It ultimately decided to exit the Biloxi market, giving Casino Magic plus $25 million to Harrah's Entertainment, owner of the adjacent Grand Casino, in exchange for a hotel and two riverboat casinos, heavily damaged by Hurricane Rita, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.[27] [28] [29]
Harrah's joined with Jimmy Buffett in 2007 to begin construction on the $700-million Margaritaville Casino Resort,[30] which would incorporate the Casino Magic hotel tower.[31] Construction was suspended, however, in 2008, due to the financial crisis and Harrah's near-bankruptcy after being taken private.[32] In 2011, Buffett announced new plans for what would become the Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant, elsewhere in Biloxi, marking the end of his project with Harrah's.[33] The city later declared the hotel tower a blighted building, demanding that it be repaired or demolished.[34]
After the Margaritaville Casino closed in 2014, developers with Biloxi Lodging announced new plans for a Margaritaville Resort on the Casino Magic site.[35] The family-friendly, non-gaming resort opened on June 23, 2016.[36]