Sports Illustrated wants to build a $410M mega resort on the Coast, one of first in the US
One of the first Sports Illustrated Resorts in the U.S. could be coming to South Mississippi with hotels, a family entertainment center and a crystal lagoon.
The $410 million resort would be built on what originally was to be the site of Gulf Coast Galleria shopping center.
The 78-acre property is on the southwest quadrant of the I-10/110 intersection in D’Iberville, directly south of The Promenade. The site is north of Biloxi and four miles from the coastline.
The D’Iberville City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted their support of Blue Water Beach — the working name of the resort — and agreed to to Issue Tax Increment Financing bonds to cover part of the cost of infrastructure improvements for the new development.
The announcement that Sports Illustrated will lend its name to “premium lifestyle resorts and entertainment destinations” came on Super Bowl weekend in February.
The first resort, under construction in the Dominican Republic, is scheduled to open this year and the another is proposed for Orlando in 2024.
Hotels, shopping, restaurants planned
The centerpiece of the D’Iberville resort will be an 11-acre Crystal Lagoon that features a clear sand beach and a Storyland family entertainment center with indoor and outdoor attractions.
“It will celebrate our culture here,” said Chris Gouras with Gouras & Associates consultants, who is handling city, county and state incentives for the project.
Tentative plans call for three hotels, the largest with 200 to 300 rooms, along with shopping, theme restaurants and entertainment such as live music, dance and film festivals.
The developers are looking to purchase the site possibly late this year and open the resort in late 2024, Gouras said.
“I think we’ll draw between 1 million and 2 million visitors a year,” he said.
The location of this property in D’Iberville — on the interstate with access to major markets and people coming to the Gulf Coast — makes it the right location for the resort, said Christopher Schroeder, CEO of Experiential Ventures Hospitality, one of the developers.
The active lifestyle resort will focus on immersive and interactive attractions, he said, where families and couples can enjoy surf riders, ziplines and other experiences, like emerging from the “stadium” tunnel onto the field and seeing themselves pictured up on the scoreboard.
The partnership
“People are looking for experiences that allow them to be more active and participatory, and Sports Illustrated Resorts will create the ultimate immersive experiences for guests through the various hospitality categories and destinations we plan to enter,” Schroeder said.
A team of companies is working together to bring the project to D’Iberville.
Sports Illustrated is 70 years old, “and the most iconic sports media brand in the country,” Schroeder said.
Based in Clearwater, Florida, Experiential Ventures Hospitality is a leader in creating experiences in the hospitality, restaurant and lifestyle industry and has worked with brands like Disney, MGM, Reebok and others.
Killian Construction, based in Springfield, Missouri, will build the resort. The company has completed over 400 construction projects in its 70 year history, including the award-winning construction of the Palace Casino expansion in Biloxi.
“The support of the city has been fantastic,” Schroeder said, “very pro-business,” and he said he looks forward to working with the county and state to bring the resort to Mississippi and D’Iberville.
Gouras said he already met with Mississippi Development Authority on a tourism tax incentive that will direct sales tax generated by the project back to the developers to help recover some of the costs when the project is done.
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 10:03 AM.
