What you're seeing is an in-progress, as-yet-unnamed water park, being developed by Cano Caranna III, the man responsible for restoring the White House Hotel. It was approved last June and was supposed to be finished this month, but it sounds like it's running well behind schedule. When completed it will host a 373-room hotel, a pair of restaurants and a marina. Water-park amenities include a lazy river, an activity pool and water slides. Since the site is zoned for gambling, a casino could figure in the project's future but Caranna has ruled that out for the present.
Although the water park may be lagging in its timeline, it's still the first real activity seen on the site in a decade. A Margaritaville-branded casino was mooted for the spot in 2007 but the Great Recession put paid to that idea. (A smaller Margaritaville Casino opened elsewhere in Biloxi but closed for lack of business.) Caranna – a Biloxi native and son of a former district attorney – knows the site well, having gotten his start in life as a valet at Casino Magic. So dedicated was he to his job that he often slept in a company trailer on the valet-parking lot.
After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi and deciding that neither becoming a lawyer or an English teacher was for him, Caranna took a job in the marketing department of Beau Rivage. He then became a casino host. "I worked very hard and it was not all fun and games. I really enjoyed the process however and I was very good at it," he says in his official biography. Caranna parlayed his Beau Rivage experience into a Las Vegas gig, at Sheldon Adelson's Venetian casino-resort. However, after taking leave to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina, Caranna experienced a crisis of conscience. "I realized staying where I was, was a huge mistake. I needed to work in Biloxi, not Las Vegas, I wanted to be back home," and took a job with Isle of Capri Casinos (at what is now the Golden Nugget).
He later moved on to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, again as a casino host. Caranna then teamed with veteran restaurateur Bill Yockey to redevelop the White House, with Caranna doubling as general manager.
Casino Magic was a $55 million casino barge that opened – along with a floating parking garage – in June 1993. It had 1,160 slots and 69 table games. It got around the 250-hotel-room requirement by building accommodations at its Bay St. Louis sister property. Eventually (May 1998, to be exact), it opened 378 hotel rooms built atop the parking garage. The following October, Pinnacle Entertainment bought out Casino Magic Corp., which planned the abortive Margaritaville casino but put it on hold while it concentrated upon flagship casino L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Casino Magic was denied permission to move to Biloxi's Back Bay area, which would have afforded partial protection from hurricanes. Instead, Pinnacle tried to shelter Casino Magic with a breakwater in the form of a submersible barge. The latter proved futile against Katrina's storm surge, which carried Casino Magic 400 feet inland, crushing a pawn shop in its path. Rather than rebuild, Pinnacle traded the site to Harrah's Entertainment for two casino licenses in Lake Charles. It was a smooth move on Pinnacle's part, as the company would lead Lake Charles into primacy among Louisiana's casino markets while Harrah's, groaning under nearly $30 billion in debt, was unable to develop the Casino Magic site. It tried to revive the Margaritaville concept but was financially incapable of doing so. Eventually the City of Biloxi condemned the damaged Casino Magic hotel tower, requiring Harrah's to demolish it. The site has since passed into Caranna's hands and looks like it will finally be contributing to the Gulf Coast economy again, after having lain fallow for a decade.
