Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians marked an important milestone a few weeks ago in the creation of its massive, $750 million resort in the rolling red clay hills of Neshoba County.
But it had nothing to do with topping off a hotel or hiring a new executive.
What the tribe did was simple, yet telling. It changed the way its operators answer telephone calls from clients and potential visitors.
Operators no longer open by thanking people for calling The Silver Star Hotel & Casino or Dancing Rabbit Golf Club, the first two pieces of the evolving destination.
Now people will be calling Pearl River Resort, an aggressive development that will include Silver Star, Dancing Rabbit, another casino, a 280-acre lake, a water park, campgrounds and other family oriented offerings.
"We're making the transition to becoming a true destination resort," Creda Stewart, the tribe's director of public information, said. "We're branding the resort, and that happens from the inside out."
Next month the Choctaws will celebrate the eighth anniversary of Silver Star, Mississippi's only land-based casino and the state's highest-grossing gambling operation.
July also will mark the opening of several new resort features: Star-tacular, a laser water show; a retail promenade; a permanent exhibit of 30 vehicles from film and television; and the $20 million Geyser Falls Water Theme Park.
Then, on Aug. 26, the tribe will open its second hotel and casino, the 571-room Golden Moon. The $177 million structure, across the highway from Silver Star, will have 144 suites, six restaurants and an 8-story-high golden disc perched atop the building.
The disc will feature an observation deck, a restaurant and a lounge.
The Choctaws, under the leadership of longtime Chief Phillip Martin, last year issued $200 million in bonds to help fund the resort.
The soft-spoken Martin is credited with lifting the tribe from dire poverty to economic well-being in the past 20 years.
As chief and chief executive of the 8,900-member tribe, the 76-year-old Martin has established an array of profitable businesses and reinvested hundreds of millions of dollars in the 30,000-acre reservation about 65 miles northeast of Jackson.
Over the years the Choctaws have made components for Ford Motor Co. and Daimler-Chrysler and recently started a high-tech imaging business.
Jerry Reynolds, a spokesman for First Nations Development Institute in Fredericksburg, Va., said the Choctaws join several other tribes around the country that have parlayed casino riches into a diversified portfolio of holdings.
For example, the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma has ventured into health care, retail and banking in the past decade.
"The Choctaws are definitely a leading example of the good that can happen in Indian country with stable leadership, some casino money and big plans," said Reynolds, whose organization helps tribes build economies through asset-based economic development.
Pearl River Resort eventually will employ some 7,800 people -- most of whom will be non-tribal members from surrounding communities.
The resort's human resources department has more than 7,000 applications for jobs at Golden Moon and will begin filling the 2,000 positions next week.
The resort's next phase -- already under construction -- will include the lake, a beach, a wellness center, a park for recreational vehicles, ballfields, another golf course and an amphitheater for concerts and other performances.
Lake Pushmataha and its 3-mile beach are scheduled to open next summer. The entire development is expected to be finished in a couple of years.
"Not many places start from scratch and become exactly what you want it to be," Darienne Wilson, head of Mississippi's tourism division, said. "But that's just what they've done.
"They've created a world-class resort -- every amenity, every attraction, every everything -- in one location."
Wilson said the state certainly will benefit from the tribe's advertising as it promotes its new features. She also expects the expanded resort to become a popular place for regional corporate meetings and conventions.
"When it was only Silver Star, one of the questions I heard from people was, 'What else can I do there?' " Wilson said. "They've answered that question."
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