According to New Orleans media outlets, two backhoes are removing a blighted industrial building to make way for Penn National’s proposed us$ 145 million Hollywood Casino Harvey. The casino would be three miles from Pinnacle Entertainment’s Boomtown New Orleans.
The Louisiana Gaming Control Board is not expected to award the state’s final casino license until February 17. Penn National is one of three companies hoping to win the gaming license. Pinnacle returned the license to the state last year when the company decided not to build a second casino in Lake Charles.
Two of the proposals would keep the license in Lake Charles while Penn wants to move the license to the New Orleans site, building a casino with 1,500 slots machines, 44 table games, a steakhouse, a buffet and a parking garage. A second us$ 155 million phase of the project calls for a 250-room hotel, a second parking garage and an entertainment showroom on a seven-acre tract.
If Penn National Gaming were awarded the provisional casino license, Jefferson Parish voters would have to approve the project. A company spokeswoman said the casino could open 12 months after voter approval. The firm acquired the debt covering M Resort at the southern end of the Las Vegas Valley and is expected to close on the transaction early this year.