| Grand Casino Gulfport | |
|---|---|
Former Grand Casino Gulfport hotel, after Hurricane Katrina washed its casino barge away | |
| Location | Gulfport, Mississippi |
| Address | 3215 W Beach Blvd |
| Opening date | May 1993 |
| No. of rooms | 1,000 |
| Total gaming space | 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2) |
| Coordinates | 30°21′44.28″N89°6′4.32″W / 30.3623000°N 89.1012000°WCoordinates: 30°21′44.28″N89°6′4.32″W / 30.3623000°N 89.1012000°W |
Grand Casino Gulfport was a riverboat casino and hotel in Gulfport, Mississippi, United States. It was owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment. Prior to its destruction by Hurricane Katrina, the casino had two hotels with a total of 1,000 rooms, and a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) casino.
History[edit]
The property was opened by Grand Casinos in May 1993.[1] An expansion was completed in 1999, adding 594 hotel rooms and a spa and salon.[2]
During 2005, Grand Casino Gulfport was a Caesars Entertainment property. After the ownership changed to Harrah's Entertainment, the company announced that this casino would be converted to the Harrah's brand. But before that could take place, the property was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. While most of the hotel facility remained intact, the casino barge was washed ashore during the hurricane and partially blocked Beach Boulevard (U.S. Highway 90), the beach front's main roadway. In an effort to clear the road, the casino was imploded on September 21, 2005.
In December 2005, Harrah's announced that the site and any remaining assets were being sold to Gulfside Casino Partnership, the owners of the adjacent Copa Casino, the Grand's neighboring competitor whose own casino barge was swept into the Grand's parking lot by Katrina. The Copa Casino Gulfport, which had been located in a berth at the Mississippi State Docks, purchased the Grand site for its own post-Katrina expansion plans. The Skybridge and/or Catwalk redirects to a parking lot and you can go to the hotel. The casino is now called the Island View Casino.
References[edit]
- ^'Grand Casinos 'pleased' with Gulfport opening' (Press release). Grand Casinos. May 19, 1993. Retrieved 2015-01-12 – via The Free Library.
- ^'Grand Casino Gulfport opens spa'. Travel Weekly. September 14, 1999. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
They haven’t been together since Hurricane Katrina did her damage, but this year former employees of Grand Casino Gulfport will reunite. The gathering will be from 6-10 p.m. July 26 at Biloxi. Katrina's Surge, Part 12. An example can be seen in the NOAA aerial below and a zoom in on the Biloxi Grand Casino. Many photos of Katrina's destruction along the Mississippi coast.
Biloxi After Hurricane Katrina
BILOXI, Miss. — Nowhere can the dichotomy that is “Katrina Recovery” at 10 years be seen more clearly than in Biloxi.
Casino Row is bustling. So is Keesler Air Force Base. The crack of bats can be heard at the new MGM Stadium from a long-dreamed-of pro baseball team. Crews are working on $350 million in water and sewer repairs and upgrades — the Gulf Coast’s last large Katrina public works project.
But nearby, the city’s centuries-old heart of Point Cadet and eastern-most Biloxi is mostly empty. The storm swept away the shotgun houses and cottages that were home to generations of fishermen and Slavic, French, Vietnamese and other working-class immigrant families that formed a unique, tight-knit community in what was once known as the “Seafood Capital of the World.”
“With Point Cadet, the big difference between then (Katrina landfall) and now is that we’ve removed the debris,” said Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel, repeating a post-Katrina adage. “There’s no East Biloxi residential, and that’s where it all started.”
Biloxi Casinos Before Katrina
Biloxi, one of the oldest cities in the country, was the third largest in population in the state before Katrina. But it dropped to fifth after losing about 13% through 2010. Since 2010, the city has seen about 2% a year population growth but still remains about 5,000 people shy of the roughly 50,600 who lived there pre-Katrina.
“The numbers are coming back,” said new Mayor FoFo Gilich, himself from a Croation “Old Biloxi” Point family, referring to business, tourism, revenue and population. “But (Katrina) was so complete and so devastating … A lot of things I remember from my childhood aren’t around anymore … It impacted a lot of psyches. Katrina was biblical.”
It also impacted insurance rates and Federal Emergency Management Agency flood plain maps, which stalled residential rebuilding in much of the peninsular city, Gilich said.
“Nobody wants to build a treehouse and live in a treehouse,” Gilich said. “Some of the FEMA regulations are so ridiculous.”
Biloxi leaders argued with FEMA that neighborhoods have survived on the Point since 1699, and that basing flood elevation requirements on a 500-year storm like Katrina are unreasonable. Leaders in other cities have made the same argument, with only limited success.
Former Biloxi Mayor Gerald Blessey, who oversaw Mississippi’s more than $2 billion Katrina housing assistance program, also hails from “The Point.” He notes the Katrina renewal plan called for east Biloxi to come back as a mixed residential community “where ideally you would live on the Point and walk to work.” He said that hasn’t proved realistic, but he hopes the city can work with FEMA and “do some creative things to bring it back as best as possible.”
Many people believe east Biloxi will eventually become all tourism and commercial, but even that redevelopment has been stymied by high insurance and construction costs, and by owners of vacant property asking high prices for their land.
One iconic structure still stands on the Point, the round, scalloped-shell roofed St. Michael’s Catholic Church, “the Fisherman’s Church,” founded in 1907, sponsor of the annual Blessing of the Fleet for shrimpers.
The Rev. Greg Barras, “Father Greg,” has seen the post-Katrina change with his St. Michael’s parish.
“We’re very much a commuter church now where everyone drives to come and celebrate,” Barras said. “After 10 years, we’re doing OK. Not thriving, but we’re doing OK.”
Gilich said the trick to continued recovery and development will be to grow while keeping “that Biloxi feeling” in a town that has drawn tourists since before the Civil War.
“Biloxi authenticity — we’re trying to recover some of that,” Gilich said.
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