Dakia Entertainment Hospitality last year entered into an agreement with Universal Music Group to develop a resort on the former Biloxi Broadwater Resort property on U.S. 90. The plans were announced in a press release that followed Tuesday’s Biloxi Council meeting.
The $1.2 billion, 266-acre resort will feature a 12,000 seat indoor concert atrium, a 1,150 room hotel with spa and other amenities, a 125,000-square-foot casino, customized music experiences including classes for local and regional students and artist interactions, a restored Broadwater Marina for recreational vessels, offshore fishing tournaments, a signature restaurant, boat slips and entertainment venues, signature 18-hole golf course and teaching academy and 18,000 square feet of retail
The resort is projected to open in spring 2023, on the former Biloxi Broadwater Resort property on U.S. 90, and is expected to provide about 1,000 construction jobs and create 2,500 jobs when it opens.
The Biloxi Council voted to allow the developers to apply to the Mississippi Development Authority for tourism tax incentives, the Sun Herald reports.
Biloxi Attorney Peter Abide said the casino will be about $200 million of the total development and isn’t part of the tourism tax incentives. He said 80% of the tax that is collected from the resort will go back to the developer for 15 years, and it is capped at 30% of the non-casino project cost.
“The Broadwater Beach, as it was known in the ‘50s, was ‘the attraction’ that brought attention and many people to our Coast,” Mayor “FoFo” Gilich said. This new development “would certainly be an ‘understatement’ to say that this project will be transformational for Biloxi, our Coast and the State of Mississippi.”
Dakia Entertainment Hospitality and Broadwater Development, which owns the property, signed a formal letter of intent to build the entertainment complex.
Dakia will manage the resort and has entered into a joint venture with Universal Music Group to create immersive music experiences.
Biloxi Council member Dixie Newman, who represents the ward in which the resort will be built, said she is getting numerous phone calls about the proposed casino on property that has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina.
“Everyone’s ecstatic there’s actually going to be something done out there,” she said.
Mayor Gilich said there are 23 homeless camps were located across the property.
The resort would be the most expensive ever built in South Mississippi.