In Mississippi, the development group Tullis Gardens Hotel LLC proposed the $300 million Tullis Gardens Hotel & Casino in East Biloxi, featuring an 11-story, 300-room hotel tower, waterfront amenities, outdoor event space, retail options, restaurants and a casino.
The resort would include a replica of Tullis Manor, which was destroyed by the Grand Casino barge that broke away during Hurricane Katrina.
Originally, the developers proposed a $140 million project with a 200-room hotel, which is 100 less than the minimum the law requires for a Coast casino.
However, Luke Lenzi, attorney for Israel “Izzy” Schwartz of Tennessee, who owns 90 percent of the company, told the Biloxi Sun Herald, “Sometime on or before January 31, 2023, we realized the hotel concept was seriously in jeopardy. A 200-room hotel bringing in less than $100 per room wouldn’t provide enough revenue to build and operate the resort without the additional income a casino would provide.”
Lenzi, chief executive officer of Tullis Gardens, owns 10 percent of the business.
The city of Biloxi owns the land where the resort would be built; Tullis Gardens has an option to buy eight acres. The developers want to include the former Fisherman’s Wharf/Lady Luck Casino property directly across the street, which would give Tullis Gardens control of the site to the water’s edge, as required by law. Control of that property has been tied up in court for several years.
Another complicating factor is Senate Bill 2780, a tidelands bill regarding casino sites and control of local harbors. The bill passed unanimously in the Louisiana Senate and now is in the House conference committee. Meanwhile, Coast city officials, attorneys and developers are lobbying to get the bill killed or delayed.
Per the Herald, Lenzi said, “The Tullis Gardens team hopes the House will, at the very least, table the issue for this session to allow time for proper study. If the Tullis Gardens team is unsuccessful in helping the legislature realize the numerous and sweeping unintended consequences that will inevitably arise from the bill’s passage as written, it will affect not only the project but waterfront property across the entire coast.”
The developers said the hotel and casino project would create 1,000 or more jobs and generate millions in tax revenue.
Another issue is the proposed resort site has been the subject of archaeological studies, overseen by the Department of Archives and History, for nearly 50 years.
A wealthy cotton and sugar broker from New Orleans built the Tullis-Toledano Manor on the site shortly before the Civil War; remains of the family’s slaves have been found on the site. Lenzi said officials told him a recent $30,000 study indicated there is a lot more work to do at the site. “It’s clearable,” he said regarding the historic liens on the property, but another $300,000 to $500,000 will be necessary.
“We don’t have the obligation to clear it, the city does,” Lenzi said. He explained if the sale doesn’t go through, Tullis Gardens would get their option money returned, but not their $2 million investment.
Mississippi Gaming Commission Executive Director Jay McDaniel said the Tullis Gardens has not submitted an application for site approval. Lenzi said the developers are waiting for site approval before they seek financing.
Per the Herald, Schwartz said, “We can say with assurance that our economic feasibility studies by the best in the nation show that the unique, high-end design, amenities and higher wages of the Tullis Gardens Hotel and Casino project will definitely grow the Biloxi gaming market and the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast tourism industry.”
Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar recently filed a bill to allow a casino in the capital city of Jackson, and quickly decided not to bring it up for a vote due to lack of support. The proposal would have changed a decades-old state law limiting casinos to the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River. Still Lamar told potential investors, “Don’t give up.”
State Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader, said a Jackson casino would hurt casinos along the Mississippi River, including in his hometown of Natchez.
Two Vicksburg lawmakers, state Reps. Oscar Denton and Kevin Ford also said a Jackson casino would harm their city, noting that more than 1,100 people work in the four Vicksburg casino hotels. Those casinos are less than 50 miles west of Jackson.
Mississippi originally specified that casinos could be developed only over water, but following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, legislators changed the law to allow casinos to develop near the shore.
