The Los Angeles company that wants to build a $250 million casino and hotel near Slidell launched its campaign for support from local government, community and business leaders with a series of face-to-face meetings this week.
That includes representatives of The Harbor Center, which would be a close neighbor of the business — and a potential competitor for the conferences, conventions and meetings that the 15-year-old public events center was built to attract. The casino, which Peninsula Pacific wants to build on land at the foot of Interstate 10, was front and center on the agenda when The Harbor Center Board of Commissions met Thursday morning via video conference.
The Los Angeles-based company that bought a financially-troubled Bossier City riverboat casino six years ago in hopes of moving to a more prof…
Mark Myers, who chairs that commission as well as the St. Tammany Parish Tourist and Convention Commission, told fellow board members he had trouble sleeping this weekend after he learned that a casino was looking at the area.
"For tourism, it's a win-win-win," he said. "For The Harbor Center, it could be a win or it could be a loss."
He and others from The Harbor Center and the tourist commission had a chance to hear what the company has in mind at an hourlong meeting and tour Wednesday.
"It was a good first impression. They liked what they heard and saw," Myers said.
P2E, as the company is called, proposes not only a casino but also a 250-room hotel. In an interview, Myers said it's not yet determined whether the project will include conference space. P2E told local officials that when it analyzed the site for one of its previous casinos, there was an events center very close by. P2E chose to partner with the existing center instead of building a rival.
Myers said he was shown plans that had space for live entertainment. The question is whether the developers will have fixed stadium seating or a stage with a large flat floor. The latter has greater utility, Myers said, but it's less desirable for performers.
It's also something that could pull business away from The Harbor Center, which saw voters twice reject a 3-mill property tax and has seen a lot of bookings canceled in the past year because of the pandemic. The board also agreed not to start collecting an additional $1 per night occupancy fee from hotels and motels in eastern St. Tammany Parish until last month because of COVID-19's hit on the lodging industry.
The Northshore Harbor Center Convention and Events Center's appointed board knew it faced an uphill battle this year to renew a 3-mill propert…
Myers said he wants P2E to stick with fixed seating, which he said would bring a level of entertainment that currently doesn't have a local venue, and to use The Harbor Center as flat floor space for conventions and meetings. That would create a complimentary rather than competitive relationship, he said.
He said he expects the discussions to continue.
Elsewhere Thursday, Pinnacle officials met with the St. Tammany Chamber board of directors after meeting with Parish Council and Slidell City Council members earlier in the week.
The company plans to hold virtual public meetings and make presentations to community and civic groups and neighborhood associations, a spokesman said.
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Proposed Slidell area casino could be win -- or loss -- for Harbor Center, chairman says - NOLA.com
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