DIAMONDHEAD -- The company turned down a $100 million offer this summer, but now Diamondhead Casino may be close to a deal.
"We are in negotiations as we speak," Diamondhead Casino Vice President Gregory Harrison said Monday. "We have lots of activity at our door." Corporate jets flew into the area over the summer and, Harrison said, "they came for a reason."
Diamondhead Casino owns the land debt-free. "We would be a passive partner," said Harrison, and by combining the company's land value with the casino operator's equity, they could get funding.
He wanted to be able to announce an agreement at the annual shareholders meeting Oct. 1 in the Washington, D.C., area, where all the major investors live.
"These things just take time," he said.
The companies interested in the property are all established casino operators.
"We're not going to invent something from scratch," he said. "We're looking for the name brand." He isn't sure which company is going to prevail in the negotiations but said there is some institutional interest in the Diamondhead stock.
Location is everything at the site that has frontage on Interstate 10 and the Bay of St. Louis.
"It's two miles and it's a beautiful view," said Harrison. With 168 acres of upland, he foresees "a casino or two or three built over parking garages. The property was originally permitted by the Mississippi Gaming Commission for two adjacent casinos, yet Harrison said they would start with one casino and plan to add a retail center and housing.
"Our land is so large we can mitigate on site," he said, adding that they plan to donate some of the wetlands for conservation in exchange for converting other land to buildable upland.
The Isle of Capri recently canceled its plans to build a casino in western Harrison County, and Harrison said that gives Diamondhead with its interstate frontage something no other Coast casino has. "We have the impulse and the drive-by."
Posted on Tue, Dec. 11, 2007
Is Diamondhead deal for casino near?
By MARY PEREZ
meperez@sunherald.com |
