President Casino Broadwater Resort

The President Casino Broadwater Resort was a combined casino and resort that was located in Biloxi, Mississippi.

It began as the Broadwater Beach Hotel and Broadwater Beach Resort in 1939,cite news | url=http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2005_3rd/Aug05_Broadwater.html | title=The Landmark Broadwater Hotel, Once Biloxi's Premier Resort, Shutting Down | author=Wilemon, Tom | publisher="The Sun Herald" | date=2005-06-30 | accessdate=2008-09-15] and was built in Art Deco style. The first owner was Pete Martin Sr., a well-known gambler and rum runner along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, who openly ran a casino within the hotel even though it was nominally illegal at the time. After Martin died, openly illegal gambling was frowned upon, and new owners tried to appeal to just the tourist market.cite web | url=http://www.sunherald.com/images/beforeafter/broadwater.html | title=Before-After: Broadwater | author=Bergeron, Kat | publisher="The Sun Herald" | accessdate=2008-09-15] In 1958, it was bought by Joe Brown, a Texas oil millionaire.

Following his death in 1959, his widow Dorothy Brown, who was a noted New Orleans philanthropist, renovated the property for a more modern look, including a wide arched canopy in the front. In the early 1960s, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was emerging as a prime alternative to Florida as a southern vacation destination, and the Broadwater Beach Resort was considered the pacesetter for the area.cite news | url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0C16FC3E5B1A7B93C7A81789D95F478685F9 | title=Mississippi Gulf Coast Woos Vacationists | author=Janson, Donald | publisher="The New York Times" | date=1963-12-15] In 1963, Dorothy Brown spent $3 million to build a marina and a heliport. The Broadwater Resort Marina plan was especially ambitious, involving hosting up to 150 sail and powerboats, and offering shore-to-ship maid service and room service to those docked, all in an effort to capture blue-water game fishing business. When it opened in 1965, it was considered state of the art.cite web | url=http://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/BiloxiGulfportAreaMS/pointsOfInterest/BroadwaterMarinainBiloxi.cfm | title=Broadwater Marina in Biloxi, MS | publisher=Vacations Made Easy | accessdate=2008-09-17] In 1968, she built the Broadwater Beach Sun Course and thus added golf as a prime attraction for visitors;cite news | url=http://www.casinoplayer.com/archive/9611cp/novgolf.html | title=On Par on the Golf Coast | author=Plume, Janet | publisher="Casino Player Magazine" | date=November 1996 | accessdate=2008-09-15] by 1974 a Sea Course was also present. [cite news | url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F7061FFD3F5D12738DDDAF0894D8415B848BF1D3 | title=What's Doing on the Mississippi Coast | author=Holles, Everett R. | publisher="The New York Times" | date=1974-10-06] During the 1960s, a men's store was present in the hotel. [cite news | url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10811FB3F5C147A93CAA9178FD85F478785F9 | title=Nick Stuart, 69, 30's Movie Star | publisher=United Press International for "The New York Times" | date=1973-04-08] For entertainment, the hotel featured musicians from New Orleans and elsewhere. [cite web | url=http://www.walkerpub.com/radio_memories_email31.html | title=Joseph Enroughty: The Guy Lombardo Society | publisher=New Orleans Radio Shrine | accessdate=2008-09-15] From the 1950s on, operational control of the hotel and resort rested with Leigh MacConnell, one of the few women to rise to the top of the local hotel industry in that era.cite news | url=http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:XsOyDmSCaOsJ:www.hotel-online.com/News/2008_Jun_28/k.BIT.1214849622.html+%22broadwater+beach+resort%22+president+casinos&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=15&gl=us | title=Tourism pro was pioneer | author=Welsh, J.R. | publisher="The Sun Herald" | date=2008-06-28 | accessdate=2008-09-15] In the 1960s the Broadwater Beach Resort found its glory years. Hosting movie stars, leading politicians, and top business figures, as well as everyday people on vacation, it became the Gulf Coast's flagship resort. During this decade, the iconic and colorfully lit Broadwater Beach Resort front sign was added. By 1977, the resort was described as a "bustling colony of rooms, cottages, restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, and its own marina." [cite news | url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10E15F73F5F137B93C1A81788D85F438785F9 | title=What's Doing on the Mississippi Coast | author=Marcus, Frances Frank | publisher="The New York Times" | date=1977-03-13]

President Casinos then bought in, and the President Casino Broadwater Resort was opened aboard a riverboat docked at the Broadwater Resort Marina in August 1992. It was the second casino to open on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, following the Isle of Capri Casino by two weeks.cite news | url=http://www.casinoman.net/gambling-news/article/president-casinos-seek-buyer-or-new-partner-for-biloxi-miss-opera.2758.asp | title=President Casinos Seek Buyer or New Partner for Biloxi, Miss., Operation | author=Boone, Timothy | publisher="The Sun Herald" | date=2004-03-12 | accessdate=2008-09-15] In June 1995, President Casinos replaced the riverboat with the former Mississippi Gold Shore Casino barge.

By the early 2000s, the President Casino Broadwater Resort sat on 260 acres and featured over 450 hotel rooms and suites across two structures.cite manual | title=President Casino Broadwater Resort | publisher=President Casinos | date=2002] The powerboat-oriented Broadwater Resort Marina had 118 berths, and was regarded as "one of the best full-service, luxurious marinas between Mobile and New Orleans." [cite book | last=Williams | first=Scott B. | title=Exploring Coastal Mississippi: A Guide to the Marine Waters and Islands | publisher=University Press of Mississippi | year=2004 | isbn=1578064244 pp. 106–107.] The President Broadwater Golf Club offered a full-length 18-hole course. The casino featured over 38,000 square feet of gambling with over 900 slot machines. However, no work had been done on the old resort and its hotel, resulting in its declining in appearance. The hotel functioned mainly as a place for the casino barge customers to sleep briefly, furniture was piled up in corridors, the hotel main floor entertainment rooms were empty, and weeds grew on the resort's tennis courts. Nevertheless, the resort still made reference to its pre-casino past, calling itself "one of the last great Southern resorts on the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

Although the casino itself found a niche market among local gamblers and was a reliable earner. President Casinos was saddled with corporate debt, and a planned new $2 billion resort at the site, to be called Destination Broadwater, never materialized. In April 2001, the President Broadwater Hotel, which represented the non-casino operations, filed for bankruptcy. President Casinos filed for bankruptcy in June 2002, and the Broadwater casino the following month, but operation of the President Casino Broadwater Resort continued.cite news | url=http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/01/17/daily66.html | title=Broadwater Development wins auction for President's Biloxi casino | publisher="St. Louis Business Journal" | date=2005-01-21 | accessdate=2008-09-15]

In January 2005, Broadwater Development LLC won a bankruptcy auction bid for the casino and resort for $82 million. On April 15, 2005, this deal closed; as part of it, the President Casino barge was purchased for $6.8 million by Silver Slipper Casino Venture LLC with the intention of operating it under the name of President Casino until it could be moved to their site in Hancock County, Mississippi. [cite news | url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/President+Casinos%2c+Inc.+Completes+Sale+of+Biloxi+Assets-a0131509903 | title=President Casinos, Inc. Completes Sale of Biloxi Assets | publisher=The Free Library | date=2005-04-15 | accessdate=2008-09-15] On July 31, 2005, the Broadwater Beach Resort closed its doors, with Broadwater Development announcing plans to tear it down and build a new resort and casino. Less than a month later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore the casino barge from its moorings and washed it ashore ½ mile west of the Broadwater Resort Marina. The barge was a total loss, it was cut up as scrap and removed by a salvage company. (The new Silver Slipper Casino would be built from the ground up instead and open in late 2006.) The hotel in the resort part was still standing but heavily damaged by Katrina, with the storm surge reaching the second floor. [cite news | url=http://www.geocities.com/biloxihistory/broadwater.html | title=An historic Biloxi Landmark takes the brunt of Hurricane Katrina | publisher=The Dominos After-Midnight Club | accessdate=2008-09-15] The famed sign was destroyed. The marina was closed. The hotel subsequently underwent demolition, which concluded by November 2006. [cite news | url=http://www.geocities.com/biloxihistory/broadwater_lurk.html | title=The Last Lurk - Broadwater Resort October 2006 | publisher=The Dominos After-Midnight Club | accessdate=2008-09-15]

As of early 2007, Broadwater Development LLC maintained plans to open another casino at the Broadwater site.cite news | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5277/is_200702/ai_n21232736 | title=10 casinos open on the Coast; one opening this summer | author=Lofton, Lynn | publisher="Mississippi Business Journal" | date=2007-02-26 | accessdate=2008-09-15]

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