The developer of another proposed casino is seeking a lease in Biloxi to build a marina to connect its site to the water’s edge.
On Tuesday’s Biloxi Council agenda is a planned vote to approve a 40-year lease with Biloxi Capital LLC, which wants to build a casino resort on the former Tivoli Hotel property in east Biloxi.
Harrison County has approved the lease, and Biloxi and the county have a similar lease with RW Development, the company working to build a casino and marina on Veterans Boulevard.
As Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich and the Council seek more tax revenue to balance the budget, a casino that would provide millions of dollars in revenue is likely to be approved. Developers estimate it will bring 2,000 permanent jobs as well as construction jobs, plus an increase in property and sales taxes for the city and county.
The Tivoli Casino will be built north of U.S. Highway 90 and west of Harrah’s Gulf Shores on land that has been vacant for 20 years since a casino barge landed on the hotel during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The 32-acre Tivoli property was purchased for $40 million in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The cost of the casino, which has grown to $750 million, is proposed as a 1,300-room hotel, far more than the 300 rooms required by the Mississippi Gaming Commission. It will also feature a 100,000-square-foot casino and sportsbook, restaurants, entertainment and leisure facilities.
A $750 million casino resort with a conference center is proposed to be built on the site of the Tivoli Hotel on Casino Row in East Biloxi. Judging from this aerial photo from 2015, the location is the wooded area to the left of Harrah’s Gulf Shores (the brown-and-white building just north of U.S. Highway 90) and the former Biloxi Yacht Club.
What does the lease say?
The lease requires the casino developer to “construct, maintain, insure and operate” the new public pier at no cost to the city, county or taxpayers.
To assuage concerns from the state and some coastal cities that the development would not pay into the National Tideland Fund, Tivoli developers agreed to make annual “in-lieu” payments to the tidelands of $600,000, the lease agreement said.
The city’s lease with Biloxi Capital has an effective date of Aug. 7, 2024, the same as the county’s lease.
Three proposed Biloxi casinos
The Gaming Commission approved the Tivoli Casino site in July after Danny Conwill insisted on building a casino resort for nearly two decades.
Tullis Gardens Casino received site approval in December 2024 but faces litigation over tideland issues.
Once the developers prove they can meet state requirements and have the funds to build and complete the resort, the next step will be to obtain permission from the commission.
If these two casinos in East Biloxi and the RW Casino on Biloxi Boulevard are completed, Biloxi will have 11 casinos and South Mississippi will have 15.
In this Sept. 1, 2005 Sun-Herald photo, a casino barge is moored next to the old Tivoli Hotel (left) and the Orr-O’Keefe Art Museum (right) off Route 90 in Biloxi. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Mississippi coast.
