LV developer hopes to break ground on Miss. casino

Monday, April 10, 2000 | 11:30 a.m.

D'IBERVILLE, Miss. -- Michael Gaughan, chairman of Coast Resorts Inc., believes he may break ground on a new casino here before the end of the year.

Gaughan, who operates three Las Vegas casino hotels and a St. Louis riverboat casino, wants to build a dockside casino with five restaurants, a parking garage and a 300-room hotel. He has options on 9 acres just west of Interstate 110.

"I still have a few more hurdles," Gaughan said. "I have that last environmental suit. I still think I'm six to eight months from breaking ground."

Gaughan's optimism comes on the heels of the Mississippi Gaming Commission's decision last month to revise new restrictions on potential Back Bay casino sites that otherwise would have placed Gaughan's proposed D'Iberville site off-limits.

Gaughan's site is one of three potential D'Iberville casino sites; the others are east of I-110. Gaughn's site has received approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Marine Resources.

City officials and Gaughan are optimistic that a federal judge will rule in their favor in the lawsuit, filed in 1998 by Friends of the Earth of Washington, D.C., and Gulf Island Conservancy of Gulfport.