Biloxi Capital, owned by developer Danny Conwill, recently published a Notice of Intent to apply to the Mississippi Gaming Commission for approval for gaming on a 30-acre tract it purchased in 2005-2006.
The company wants to invest $600 million in a casino resort there, the former site of the Tivoli Hotel, east of the Biloxi Yacht Club. The land has been zoned for gaming since 2007. Biloxi Capital attorney Michael Cavanaugh said, “We believe the timing is right because of market conditions.”
The public notice states, “The applicant anticipates that the establishment will contain approximately 100,000 square feet of gaming space and approximately 2,000 slot machines and 75 table games. The project will include approximately 1,300 hotel rooms; 100,000 square feet of convention space and other amenities as approved by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.”
Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich said the site “is in the very heart of the East Biloxi waterfront area where the city has focused its development efforts. The project as proposed, will complement many of the initiatives on which we have been working.”
Gilich noted developers have pitched dozens of casino projects over the past few years, but the key to Biloxi Capital’s proposal would be approval of the site for a casino by the gaming commission.
Councilman Felix Gines, who represents the area where the casino would be located, said, “A development of this nature in East Biloxi will only help stimulate other much needed developments such as housing and retail growth. There isn’t a better location in Biloxi to help stimulate and kickstart growth in the area. Now this could also be a game-changer for the city of Biloxi. This is a development that we’ve been working on for a while.”
Meanwhile, Special Circuit Court Judge Christopher Schmidt recently ruled on three casino-related appeals. He twice upheld the gaming commission’s denials of site approvals for RW Development for a casino on the Biloxi Strip at U.S. 90 and Veterans Avenue in Biloxi in March 2017 and again in July 2017. He also denied the appeal of Diamondhead Real Estate for a site near the Bay of St. Louis. The Gaming Commission previously ruled against the RW site in 2008 and the Diamondhead site in 2014.
At its March 2017 meeting, the commission ruled that neither property met state regulations for a legal casino. Cavanaugh and Gerald Blessey, attorneys for RW Development, appealed the decision in March 2017 and Cavanaugh also represented Diamondhead Real Estate in its appeal.
At a hearing before Schmidt in September, Blessey suggested the gaming commission denied site approval to RW Development to stop competition for existing casinos, which would have been a change in public policy .
to use regulations to shut down competition for existing casinos. “Protecting the casinos from competition is not their duty,” Blessey said, adding the commission is not the “absolute power” and the court should “check and balance” the decision to deny site approval.
Schmidt disputed Blessey’s claims and said Gaming Commission Executive Director Allen Godfrey conducted the application process fairly and in accordance with the rules. “The executive director is further aided by the fact that an entirely different, 3-person commission unanimously came to the exact same conclusion in 2008,” Schmidt wrote.
But the main thrust of Schmidt’s rejection of the appeal goes back to 2008, when the court ruled RW Development does not have control of the property to the water’s edge. There is a strip of public beach between the developer’s land and the water and along much of the Harrison County coast. Schmidt wrote, “The commission was correct in 2008 and again in 2017 that the Public Trust Tidelands Boundary Line is not interchangeable with the mean high water line. Therefore the decision was in accordance with the law.”
The developers still could appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
In the case of Diamondhead Real Estate, the gaming commission also ruled that developer doesn’t control the land to the water’s edge at the Bay of St. Louis. There are several hundred feet of salt marsh between a manmade canal and the Bay of St. Louis at the proposed site. Schmidt wrote, “The location of the mean high water line in the marshlands of the St. Louis Bay is evidently not a simple question.”
The appeal also questioned whether Gaming Commission Chairman Al Hopkins should have asked Godfrey for a recommendation before the commission voted on site approval. Godfrey had recommended denying the application and the commission voted unanimously to accept his recommendation.
Schmidt said according to the Mississippi Supreme Court the executive director is required to make a recommendation. He said the commission’s process was fair and met the legal requirements. He also noted an entirely different commission later reached the exact same conclusion regarding site approval. “The gaming commission’s decision was supported by ample evidence and was not arbitrary or capricious,” Schmidt ruled.
