May 01—BILOXI—Tilman Fertitta invested $100 million to transform Golden Nugget Casino Biloxi, and he will be in town for the grand opening Friday and to speak at the Southern Gaming Summit on Wednesday.
The owner and chairman of parent company Landry’s, Fertitta, 56, said he’s wanted to expand the Golden Nugget footprint in Biloxi for years.
He also owns casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., and a Landry’s restaurant in Biloxi was among his 500 entertainment properties until Hurricane Katrina destroyed it in 2005.
He bought the Isle Casino Biloxi for $45 million in late 2012 and construction crews have been working on it since early 2013.
This weekend’s grand opening marks the end of construction, as the new casino floor will be unveiled at 11 a.m. today.
The celebration continues Friday with a noon ribbon-cutting and Saturday with a pool party and concert.
It will be a celebration, said Melissa Radovich, vice president of marketing, with show girls, a Forrest Gump lookalike and the relocation of the Hand of Faith—the largest gold nugget in existence—from Las Vegas to its new display case in the lobby of Golden Nugget Biloxi.
The resort now has 720 redesigned hotel rooms and suites, a retail promenade, a new spa and a ballroom that provides a venue for national performers.
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. opens this weekend with indoor dining overlooking the new casino space and outdoor balcony dining overlooking the new H2O pool.
The buffet got a complete makeover and other new restaurants are Morton’s the Steakhouse, Lillie’s Asian Cuisine and Michael Patrick’s Sports Bar & Grill.
Several bars and lounges are found throughout the casino, which has 425 new slots among its more than 1,200 machines, along with 54 table games and a new high-limit room—“something that this property has needed for a long time,” Radovich said.
The room has its own cage, bar and restrooms, and the VIP check-in near the lobby has a dedicated elevator to suites.
Where once customers had a distance to walk to get to the casino, Radovich said the parking garage now has an entrance directly onto the casino floor.
Almost every area is open-concept, providing views from restaurants to the casino to create energy.
The exception is the new convention space with 16 meeting rooms in a separate and quiet space.
Every area of the resort was remodeled while remaining open.
“It’s one thing to operate a businesses,” Radovich said. “It’s another to grow a business and remodel at the same time.”