Mississippi On line casino Resort Lengthy Delayed Cleared by State Supreme Court docket
An extended-delayed Mississippi on line casino resort proposed for Lengthy Seashore, Mississippi, has been cleared to maneuver ahead by the state’s highest courtroom.
Parrish’s Restaurant & Lounge in Lengthy Seashore, MS. The proprietor of the restaurant desires to increase his tidewaters lease settlement with the state throughout Freeway 90 to permit him to construct a Mississippi on line casino resort. (Picture: Fb)
Since 2018, Mississippi actual property developer Jim Parrish has been in search of state approval to assemble a $180 million on line casino resort throughout from Lengthy Seashore Harbor. Parrish owns Parrish’s Restaurant & Lounge on the tidelands, in addition to the vacant property throughout US Freeway 90 — aka Seashore Boulevard.
Parrish desires to construct his on line casino on the land north of Freeway 90. He plans to fulfill state riverboat gaming legal guidelines requiring casinos to be inside 800 toes of the Gulf Coast’s imply excessive water line. He’ll accomplish that by tethering the resort’s main construction to Parrish’s Restaurant.
Parrish’s proposal has been tied up in courts practically since his introduction of the scheme. The state beforehand argued that for the reason that plan doesn’t embrace precise gaming inside 800 toes of water, the resort shouldn’t be authorised by the Mississippi Gaming Fee (MGC).
However the Mississippi Supreme Court docket this week got here down on Parrish’s facet. The excessive courtroom cited earlier lease and boundary agreements reached between the builders and the state secretary’s workplace.
Tidelands in Query
The Parrish’s current Harbor Market — the acquainted elevated “spaceship” construction — was constructed and opened after reaching a tideland’s lease settlement with the town and state. Tidelands are lands which might be lined and uncovered day by day by water on account of tides.
The Mississippi Secretary of State’s workplace manages tidelands, and leases such property to upland non-public house owners for companies that profit the general public and state.
Parrish reached a tidelands lease settlement with the state in 2011 for the restaurant venue. In his utility for using the tidelands, Parrish advised native officers his grand imaginative and prescient was to in the future construct a gaming venue known as Lengthy Seashore Harbor Resort.
The state, nonetheless, has subsequently tried to cease Parrish and his entity, Lengthy Seashore Resort LLC, from lending the market tidelands lease for a on line casino. Present Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson denied the developer’s bid to hyperlink the tidelands to his vacant property throughout Freeway 90. The state Supreme Court docket concluded that Watson’s actions have been unjust.
“Had the State not leased this immediately to the Metropolis (and the Resort by ratification) in 2011 via the Tidelands Lease, the State can be nicely inside its rights as Trustee of the Tidelands to require the Resort to enter right into a separate tidelands lease. However the State did lease this immediately and, additional, did particularly ratify the prior Resort Lease,” the Mississippi Supreme Court docket dominated.
Gaming Fee in Management
With Parrish now having a qualifying property to construct a on line casino resort, the MGC might want to evaluation the mission. The method includes the state gaming fee reviewing financing plans and conducting background checks on main traders and officers concerned with the endeavor.
Previous to the pandemic and earlier than extra state authorized battles, Parrish mentioned in 2019 that he had secured financing to convey the $180 million imaginative and prescient to actuality. The 2019 blueprint included a on line casino flooring measuring 40,000 sq. toes and a 300-room lodge.
