KEEPING THE ORCHESTRA AFLOAT PERFORMING ON FLOATING STAGE WITH HELP OF A LOCAL BUSINESSMAN
April 30, 2007Jessie Darcey
May 2, 2007
After months of preparation for its grand opening, the Amelia Belle Casino’s fate hinges on a May 16 meeting in Baton Rouge with the Louisiana State Gaming Commission.
The riverboat’s owner, Columbia Sussex of Fort Mitchell, Ky., is seeking the commission’s final stamp of approval and an opening date.
And Neil Narter, the newly-hired general manager, is seeking a key license before he officially assumes the GM role.
“I can tell you that if the state says ‘yes,’ we won’t open May 16th, but [the riverboat will open] sometime shortly thereafter,” Narter said.
Narter replaces the Amelia Belle’s former general manager, Bryan Anderson, who left the company earlier this year.
Narter previously served in the general manager role at the Evangeline Downs Casino in Opelousas, the Copa Casino in Gulfport, and Boomtown Casino in Biloxi. He also gained casino experience at Harrah’s in Reno, Nev., and Fitzgerald’s in Las Vegas.
Making good on its promise to hire locally, Narter said that 72 percent of the Amelia Belle workforce resides in St. Mary Parish. In all, 400 new full-time jobs are expected to be created.
“That’s one of the real beauties of this operation n the local employees who will be the catalysts in this economy,” Narter said. “Their salaries, their tax money, and the tax money we pay on their salaries n all of that works in the multiplier effect, that will generate revenue through this whole area.”
Additional monies will be generated through an operating agreement with the St. Mary Parish Council. Under a deal struck last year, the Amelia Belle Casino is to pay the parish $1.5 million annually for the next 10 years in order to locate on Bayou Boeuf, adjacent to Lake Palourde Road in Amelia.
Following a special parishwide election in 2006, St. Mary Parish voters approved the boat’s docking in the area with the stipulation that Columbia Sussex compensate the local government. In that election, 65.07 percent of the voters supported the project.
Of the 34.93 percent of voters that opposed the project, many reside in a precinct near the Cypress Bayou Casino, which is owned by the Chitimacha Indian Tribe. The casino is located on the west end of St. Mary in Charenton.
Once opened, Narter said the casino will be Louisiana’s largest floating facility, the equivalent of a six-story building.
The casino will offer over 800 slot machines and 22 table games, Narter said. The first floor features table games and slots; the second floor has slots and a poker room.
A 150-seat buffet and an open-area concert area are included in the third floor.
Narter contends the buffet will be the best bet “going for miles.”
“I expect our buffet will be very popular, especially for the price: $9.95. And I can tell you after trying it out for the first time recently during a restaurant dry-run for our staff and employees, it was awesome,” the general manager added.
Henry Dudley is the riverboat’s executive chef. He is also a corporate chef for Columbia Sussex.
“Although my stay here is only temporary until I find someone I consider qualified to replace me, I’m looking forward to providing quality food service to this area,” Dudley said.
Given the caliber of chefs in the metropolitan New Orleans region, the Brooklyn native is confident a replacement will soon be found. “This company believes in diversity, and their policies are excellent,’ Dudley added.
Ironically, work on the third deck’s kitchen area caused the Amelia Belle owners to have the floating casino removed from the Louisiana Gaming Control Board’s April agenda.
Columbia Sussex owned and operated the Amelia Belle n known then as the Belle of New Orleans n for only two months before the riverboat sustained heavy damages from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Columbia Sussex began investing in casinos in 2002, when it bought the former Maxim Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas in 2002, and invested $40 million into it. The property later reopened in 2003 as the Westin Casuarina Hotel and Spa.
In Louisiana, in addition to operating the Belle of Baton Rouge, the company owns two hotels, The Baton Rouge Marriott, and the Wyndham New Orleans At Canal Place.
And in January of this year, the company paid $2.75 billion for the Phoenix-based owner of the Tropicana in Las Vegas, trumping the offers of three other casino companies: Pinnacle Entertainment, Colony Capital and Ameristar, according to the review journal,
www.lvrj.com.
Photos by HOWARD J. CASTAY JR. • Tri-Parish Times * The Amelia Belle Casino in St. Mary Parish is gearing up for the May 16 meeting of the Louisiana State Gaming Commission. The floating casino’s owners, the Columbia Sussex, are seeking a final OK from the commission and word of an opening date. In recent days, the riverboat has had dry-runs in anticipation of customers’ arrival.
