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Management announces temporary closure of Margaritaville Vicksburg

Published 8:09 pm Wednesday, August 19, 2020

In a letter to employees Tuesday, Margaritaville Vicksburg CEO Gary Blanton announced the hotel in downtown Vicksburg would be closing effective Sunday.

The letter, obtained by The Post Wednesday evening, references “Temporary closing and furlough due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).”

“As we continue to battle through the effects of COVID-19, we are disappointed to say that we have made the decision to close Margaritaville Hotel Vicksburg on Sunday, August 2020 at 12:00 p.m. (noon),” Blanton writes. “While we know you have worked hard to keep the property open through the summer, the continued decline in business deems it appropriate to close the property until we can further evaluate the market and the downward trends we are facing due to reduced business and leisure travel from the pandemic.”

Blanton details employees will be furloughed and will receive an additional two weeks of pay, through Sept. 5, based on “the average hours worked over the last 30 days.”

“We understand these are difficult times, and we have tried to do the right thing by keeping Margaritaville Hotel Vicksburg partially open for as long as possible; however, we are at a point where we no longer feel it is the most practical path to take,” Blanton writes.

“We’re disappointed but we hope that from this dark cloud there will be a rainbow and we’ll be able to see something happen that will be encouraging and hopeful for the meeting planners that depend on a close hotel to the convention center,” said Annette Kirklin, executive director Vicksburg Convention Center.

“We hate to hear that. We hate to hear that any business has to close, even temporarily. I hope they can reopen,” said Laura Beth Stricklin, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. “If they make the decision to close I hope that property won’t stay vacant for long. I think it’s a great asset to our downtown and our tourism product to have a hotel in the heart of our city.”

In May 2017, Vicksburg Hotel LLC announced the former Portofino Hotel would reopen in 2018 as Margaritaville. The hotel, which included an expansive video game area, new pool and a restaurant, along with riverfront hotel rooms, opened in June 2018.

Harrah’s Casino operated at the site of the Portofino from 1993 until 2003, when it sold its Vicksburg property to Columbia Sussex.

The names on the casino and hotel changed to Horizon until fall 2010, when Tropicana Entertainment, which was part of Columbia Sussex and operated Horizon, went bankrupt and closed the casino.

In 2011, the venue reopened as Grand Station, but closed in March 2012 amid bankruptcy.

From 1993 until the Grand Station bankruptcy, the casino was located on a barge built to look like a riverboat that was moored in the Yazoo Diversion Canal next to the hotel and surrounded by a cofferdam.

The former casino vessel was auctioned for scrap metal in April 2013 and hauled away.

Vicksburg Hotel acquired the former Grand Station Hotel and Casino property in 2014 and renamed it Portofino. The hotel closed its doors on July 21, 2015.

More News

VICKSBURG – (AP) A New Orleans developer says he has offered to buy the Grand Station Hotel.

The Vicksburg Post reports that Kenneth W. Bickford, president of Chappapeela Development Corp., said the Grand Station Hotel will be bought from M Street Inc., which owns the 117-room facility and holds the adjacent Grand Station Casino's docking permits. The hotel connects to downtown Vicksburg and the casino, which is currently mired in foreclosure proceedings.

Bickford said in a news release that his plans are to create a luxury condominium hotel and marina resort.

Bickford said the existing hotel, completed with the casino by Harrah's in 1993 as Vicksburg's second gaming hall and the state's first casino-hotel tandem, will be refurbished into a 70-unit condo complex complemented by retail space, restaurants, a bar, a lobby, a spa, a marina, tennis courts and a resort pool.

Bally Gaming Inc. is foreclosing on the casino for $3 million owed for equipment inside the 36,000-square-foot facility. The foreclosure auction is March 26 house unless the Las Vegas-based gaming device maker and casino owner Delta Investments and Development resolve the debt.

Mickey Fedell, Grand Station marketing director, said the casino and hotel are separate entities.

Any firm interested in buying an existing casino or developing one in Mississippi along the Mississippi River or Gulf of Mexico must apply for a license from the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

No firm has applied for a new license to operate Grand Station Casino, said executive director Allen Godfrey, who said the fate of the casino hinges on the foreclosure sale.

“It's really up to them what happens,' Godfrey said.

Vicksburg Casino Hotel

Harrah's sold the facility in 2003 for $28.6 million to Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, which renamed the casino Horizon. Tropicana Entertainment, which had been part of Columbia Sussex, took over Horizon operations and, in 2007, the firm had agreed to sell the casino to Nevada Gold and Casinos for about $35 million until the deal fell through a year later.

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In 2010, Delta bought the hotel and casino for $3.25 million in cash plus liabilities.