Two riverboats that formerly housed casinos will move to New Orleans, as the city celebrates its tricentennial in 2018. Hospitality Enterprises New Orleans, which owns the Creole Queen, announced it has purchased from Tropicana Entertainment the City of Evansville, Indiana’s first riverboat casino that opened in 1995. The vessel left its longtime dock in Evansville soon after Tropicana opened a new land-based casino and entertainment facility nearby. Also, the New Orleans Steamboat Company, which owns the Natchez, announced the Casino Rock Island, which closed nearly a decade ago but remained docked in northwest Illinois, will operate from the Lower Bienville Street Wharf.
Hospitality Enterprises President and Chief Executive Officer Warren Reuther Jr. said the 3,000-passenger City of Evansville will take about three weeks to travel from Evansville to Morgan City-based Conrad Shipyard’s deep-water facility in Amelia. The boat’s smokestacks are 98 feet tall and will have to be taken down because of bridges along the way. The side-wheel paddleboat, 310 feet long by 70 feet wide, will be renamed the Riverboat Louis Armstrong. It will remained docked at the riverfront and operate as a floating jazz club and restaurant. It’s expected to open in time for Mardi Gras, Reuther said.
Reuther noted he spent two years seeking the right riverboat to become the Louis Armstrong. He said, “We don’t want to make it Hollywood, and we don’t want to make it Vegas.. We want it to be like Preservation Hall on the water, where people can come and listen to jazz, and then we’ll have a dance floor and people can dance.” He added a room will be set aside for displaying artifacts and memorabilia donated by the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation in New York.
The 1,000-passenger City of New Orleans will feature three enclosed decks and offer harbor and dinner cruises, and be available to rent for weddings and group outings, said New Orleans Steamboat Company President and Chief Executive Officer Gordon Stevens. “The business has come back, and it’s very strong, and we feel that a new boat is justified and that we can keep it busy,” he added. Renovating the vessel will cost around $8.5 million, Stevens said. He said the purchase coast of the boat was “very inexpensive.”
Last year New Orleans welcomed a record 10.5 million visitors, a 7 percent increase over 2015 and the highest number since 2004, according to a study by the University of New Orleans’ Hospitality Research Center. Those visitors spent a record $7.4 billion, up almost 5 percent from 2015.
