The Wharf owner just bought a vacant Mississippi coast casino
A Mississippi coast casino which has sat vacant for nearly a decade has been purchased by the developer who opened The Wharf and Dick’s Last Resort in Orange Beach, among myriad other businesses.
MIC, a company owned by Harry Mohney, bought the former Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi, Miss., according to the Sun Herald. The purchase price was not disclosed, but the asking price was $15.9 million.
The attorney who represented Mohney in the purchase told the newspaper plans for the 68,000-square-foot facility include two restaurants, bars and entertainment, including karaoke and ax throwing. Casino gambling is not a part of the plan, according to the report.
Two businesses Mohney has opened in other resort locations, including Orange Beach — Dick’s Last Resort and The World Famous Cat’s Meow karaoke bar — are expected to be part of the new development.
Jimmy Buffett played to about 3,000 people during the VIP opening of Margaritaville Biloxi in 2012.
The $48 million Margaritaville Biloxi opened to great fanfare in May 2012, with the VIP opening including a concert by Jimmy Buffett. Initial plans called for a 250-room hotel to be added by the spring of 2015.
A little more than two years after it opened, however, problems had begun to plague the resort and in September 2014, it closed abruptly, leaving 371 employees without jobs.
In the years since, multiple efforts to resurrect the property, including a proposal by rock band KISS, have fallen through for various reasons.