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NEWS: Margaritaville Biloxi already expanding


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The new Margaritaville Resort in Biloxi has announced expansion plans that will include rides!

 

http://www.wlox.com/story/33318292/margaritaville-unveils-plans-to-expand-family-entertainment-center?clienttype=generic&sf37900053=1

 

Margaritaville appears to be a bigger success than developers expected. That's one reason they're ready to invest another $140 million into the east Biloxi family entertainment center.

 

Tuesday night, an attorney representing the Margaritaville development team shared the new plans with the Biloxi City Council. The conceptual drawing shown at the meeting included a Ferris wheel, other amusement park rides, and a second hotel tower.

 

"We've underestimated how much we needed family entertainment," attorney Michael Cavanaugh said.

 

Before the expansion begins, developers must sign a tidelands lease with the Secretary of State. That will give them control of the land to build their expansion. Developers also have their eyes on property north of Highway 90. The conceptual drawing uses that land for surface parking.

 

Margaritaville opened just as the summer tourism season started. Even though it sits between Golden Nugget and Harrah's, and it's zoned for casinos, owners maintain gambling will not be part of this family attraction.

 

The current plan is to open the new additions to Margaritaville in 2018.

 

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Needs a woodie called Landshark

Edited by larrygator
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As TPR's resident parrothead I completely approve of all of this and absolutely need to go.

 

Remember that GCI that was proposed for (now defunct) Miracle Strip in PCB, this would be a good home for it and Mississippi needs a coaster.

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Can we get this same type of expansion in Tulsa please?

 

Tulsa is a casino, I doubt it would happen.

 

Johnny Morris had mentioned partnering with them on a potential redo of Mud Island in Memphis to compliment the Pyramid Bait Shop but nothing has come of it.

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Needs a woodie called Landshark

Hows about a Premier Rides spaghetti bowl that's called Shocktop?

 

What the hell does that have to do with Jimmy Buffet? Please step away from the Parrothead party. Poser. Around here we drink Landshark. Fins up.

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Needs a woodie called Landshark

Hows about a Premier Rides spaghetti bowl that's called Shocktop?

What the hell does that have to do with Jimmy Buffet? Please step away from the Parrothead party. Poser. Around here we drink Landshark. Fins up.

Hey, hey, hey, back it up. I've never been to a Margaritaville, just thought the name was cool.

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The first time I tried Landshark in a bottle, I thought that it tasted just like Corona (which I like with lime when it's really hot). The 2nd time I had it at the swim-up bar at CP (on draft), it wasn't very good. Not that it tasted sour like when they don't clean the tap lines out...it just honestly tasted more like Budweiser with a lime.

 

Not sure what that was all about, so I haven't really had it since. But then again, I tend to steer myself towards hoppier, higher ABV beers these days, unless I am golfing and then it's usually Canadian lager.

 

Back on subject...Michael likes Buffet so this resort gets our stamp of approval.

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^ If I am in Florida or any other tropical place I will try it again...in a bottle with lime...on the beach...just as it should be.

 

And after that we'll move on to the Margarita's...just because that's what you do when on said beach!

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Needs a woodie called Landshark

Hows about a Premier Rides spaghetti bowl that's called Shocktop?

 

What the hell does that have to do with Jimmy Buffet? Please step away from the Parrothead party. Poser. Around here we drink Landshark. Fins up.

 

 

We also spell Buffett with two "T's".

 

This place needs a drop tower called Gravity Storm.

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  • 1 year later...

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article213875709.html

 

Biloxi resort plans $140M amusement park and hotel tower

June 26, 2018 07:29 PM

BILOXI, Miss.

 

The owners of the Margaritaville Resort Biloxi announced Thursday that they will move forward with a $140 million hotel expansion and amusement park after settling a lawsuit with state officials.

 

The current 371-room hotel was built as Casino Magic Biloxi. It was vacant for years after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, but re-opened two years ago as a family-focused vacation destination without gambling.

 

Spokesman Cono Caranna of the Barrington Group said Thursday that the owner agreed to lease land from the state, paying more than $650,000 a year.

 

Caranna said expansion will include a second 300-room hotel tower and an elevated amusement park to go with the current extensive arcade, pool and indoor playground. He estimates the expansion will add 600 jobs.

 

"Post-Katrina, everything that was on the beach that was family-friendly didn't come back," he said, explaining the resort's popularity. "Adding this to the mix added something that allowed families to come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

 

The owners of the hotel were challenging the Mississippi Secretary of State's office claim that the state owned some land south of the U.S. 90 beachfront highway. The city of Biloxi, the Biloxi school district and Harrison County were also challenging the claim. All those parties are dismissing their lawsuits, with Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel saying the developer agreed to relinquish its ownership claims to at least some disputed land.

 

The city of Biloxi had threatened to rezone the land to prohibit casinos, a move Hosemann said would make the lease less valuable for the state. The city didn't do that and Hosemann said the Margaritaville lease includes a rent increase if the developer ever opens a casino on the site.

 

The same development group opened a second Margaritaville in a former casino hotel in Vicksburg on Saturday.

 

The Barrington Group also has redeveloped or is working on four other developments in Gulfport and Biloxi.

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It should be noted that the former actual Margaritaville Casino is still there (at a different site) It's been closed for a long time. It had a dispute with a land owner and could not build it's own hotel there plus it was kinda out of the way. That property might be revisited for a Margaritaville casino if it can add a hotel. Mississippi is the first state that is going to open up sports books since the Supreme Court ruling. It might bring some life back to Tunica as well. There are a couple of huge former MGM grand resorts just sitting there and one could easily be retrofitted for Margaritaville theming.

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  • 9 months later...

https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article229343274.html

 

New Margaritaville amusement park will include a flying bar that lets you drink in the sky

By Mary Perez

April 17, 2019

 

New details are emerging on the new Margaritaville amusement park after developers brought plans to the Biloxi Review Committee on Wednesday.

 

The Sun Herald has obtained a list of rides, including the first AEROBAR ride in the United States, along with the proposed opening time and the fact that a boardwalk with food trucks will be built.

 

Heavy equipment moved in a week ago to ready the lot just west of Margaritaville Resort Biloxi, and the plan is to have the park open by next spring, according to Barrington Development. The company restored the former Casino Magic site that stood empty after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and reopened it in 2016 as Margaritaville.

 

Now, phase II of development is starting with a 15 foot-wide boardwalk along the water. It will link to other walkways being constructed in East Biloxi as part of the city’s waterfront plan.

 

“This will be good for East Biloxi,” Jerry Creel, Biloxi’s community development director, said of the amusement park. “It’s family entertainment,” he said, which will appeal to locals and tourists.

 

In keeping with the Margaritaville theme — and to the delight of Parrotheads who follow all things Jimmy Buffett — one of the key attractions at the new amusement park is an AEROBAR, the first bar in the sky ride in the United States.

 

Riders are strapped in — like on a roller coaster — and sit facing each other in a circle with a bartender in the middle. The ride slowly rotates as it climbs 115 feet in the air — 137 feet with the two-story parking garage underneath. The ride takes 2 minutes to go up and down and 5 minutes on the top, according to the company website.

 

“It’s not a thrill ride — it’s a view ride,” said Cono Caranna, spokesman for Barrington Development.

 

Also making the most of the view of East Biloxi and out to the barrier islands off the coast of Biloxi will be a giant Ferris wheel. It’s made by the same manufacturer who built the 20-story high Sky View wheel that overlooks Atlanta. But Biloxi’s version will be even taller since the entire amusement park will be built atop a parking garage that will provide plenty of room in an area that has historically been short on parking spaces.

 

Other newly announced rides are:

▪ Family Swinger

▪ Bumper cars, like those that were popular at amusement parks in the mid-1950s and ‘60s

▪ Vertigo Swing

 

▪ Galleon, a swinging pirate ship

▪ Music Express, which is similar to the Himalayan fair ride

 

The rides are on order from Europe, where amusements like this are manufactured. Precast sections of the parking garage are being poured at Tindall Corp. in Moss Point. After Labor Day and the end of the summer tourist season, the parts will be moved to the site and the garage will take only about 12 weeks to build, the developer said.

 

Escape family entertainment center already inside Margaritaville will be linked to the new amusement park. Caranna said the same card customers swipe to to play the video games, scale the climbing wall and ride the indoor zip line roller coaster inside Escape will be used to get on the rides at the amusement park.

 

Mississippi Power will bury the utility lines, the developer said, and palm trees will add more tropical feel to Margaritaville.

 

A second hotel tower will be built west of the amusement park in phase III of the Margaritaville Resort development, said Allen Young, engineer for the project.

Aerobar.JPG.45347d7aa7ef065e96ce2e715b70ebf4.JPG

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