Long Beach developers ready to fight for casino. Here’s what would need to happen
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- Long Beach officials are negotiating a lease for a harbor casino development site.
- The proposed harbor site lacks the 5 acres required by Mississippi gaming rules.
- Developers must secure new Gaming Commission approval before construction begins.
Long Beach’s mayor and aldermen met for nearly two hours in executive session Friday to discuss terms for leasing the harbor to a casino developer.
The 10 or so people in the audience said they are neither for nor against a casino in the harbor, because city officials haven’t shared the details.
Mayor Tim Pierce and Ward 2 Alderman Jesse Allen said they are still in negotiations to lease the city-owned property at the harbor, where Parrish’s restaurant and a parking area for the restaurant are located.
Combined with the tidelands area the city leases from the state for boat trailer parking, the harbor site totals about three acres.
Jay McDaniel, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said the current lease is too small to put a casino south of U.S. 90 because it is a narrow parcel that connects the northern parcel (and proposed casino location) to the mean high water line.
“It was never contemplated to be a casino site on the south,” he said. “I can’t speak to any future lease and whether any possible acreage is too small because that has not been presented to me.”
The site has to meet minimum requirements and be large enough to accommodate a 300-room hotel, a 40,000-square-foot casino floor, two restaurants, including a fine-dining restaurant, and parking.
It also must have an attraction or amenity that will grow the market rather than take customers from existing casinos.
Site approval goes back to step 1
Originally James Parrish and the other developers proposed building a casino on the 12-acre site north of U.S. 90, where Kmart and Sav-A-Center grocery store were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.
The Mississippi Gaming Commission granted site approval to that site in early 2019 and the developers have been working since to complete the plans and funding to go back to the commission for permission to start construction. The working name was Southern Sand Casino.
Pierce said he is aware the proposed site doesn’t qualify under the previous approval.
Pierce says he does not want the casino south of the highway. “That site is the beauty of Long Beach,” he said. “It’s a quality of life thing for me,” he said.
“This would be a new piece of property. They would have to get a new site approval,” said Jay McDaniel, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
“That northern parcel was sufficiently large enough to build a casino,” McDaniel said. The proposed site on the south side of the would not be big enough to build on, he said.
Challenges ahead
It could be the developers are taking the first step and getting city approval for the new site.
The Gaming Commission will look at the site legality and suitability, McDaniel said, if and when the developers submit a new request for site approval.
The project has other challenges — a city height requirement that would require the purchase of a ladder truck, the five miles over two-lane roads from Interstate 10, the already crowded casino market in South Mississippi, high interest rates and the challenge of securing funds.
Allen said residents of Long Beach generally are of three opinions about the casino.
“You’ve got people that want a casino, but only north of the highway. You’ve got people that want one regardless. And you’ve got people who don’t want one at all,” he said.
Long Beach needs the revenue the casino will bring, Pierce and Allen said, and they are willing to fight for a casino project. That includes the developer challenging the state over the size of the site. “The court battle is coming,” Pierce said.
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 1:46 PM.
