Architectural firm Friedmutter Group will design the new Foxwoods Resort Casino at Biloxi Pointe.
The announcement came Wednesday and shows progress on the $265 million resort and casino. Chris Ferrara, a Gulf Coast businessman and managing director of Biloxi Boardwalk Ventures, has partnered with Foxwoods Resort Casino to build the casino off 8th Street in East Biloxi.
Ferrara said he expects Friedmutter Group will have the designs complete by the end of September and the project could go to the Mississippi Gaming Commission by the end of the year for permission to proceed with construction.
Roy Anderson is the contractor and Ferrara said “the planned opening is spring of 2019.”
Pictures of the casino depicted on the resort’s website are just renderings, he said.
“This will change to an old Biloxi look,” Ferrara said.
The Biloxi theme will honor the city’s history and be carried throughout the resort at the former Heinz plant on a 23-acre site on Back Bay adjacent to the Biloxi Boardwalk Marina and The Biloxi Lugger restaurant.
The 781,000-square-foot resort will have a casino, 500-room hotel, 71,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space with a theater, six restaurants and bars, retail, a spa, fitness center, swimming pool and bowling and shuffleboard space plus other attractions to be announced.
Friedmutter Group, led by Brad Friedmutter, has worked on casino projects including Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport and IP Casino Resort in Biloxi along with The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas and Studio City Macau in China.
The firm has been immersed in the casino and hospitality industry since 1992. Its award-winning designers create innovative plans that reflect the history of the communities in which their casinos are built, a design strategy of Foxwoods Resort Casino.
“Not only has Brad Friedmutter and his team worked for the Tribe and Foxwoods on many past projects during our nearly 25-year history in the casino gaming industry,” said Felix Rappaport, chief executive officer of Foxwoods, “but Friedmutter Group has delivered pre-eminent design solutions to clients around the world.
“Brad’s involvement will ensure that the Foxwoods brand is fully integrated into the facility design, creating an authentic and compelling hospitality experience that captures the essence and ethos of the Gulf Coast.”
In June, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation announced it will develop and operate the casino in Biloxi. This is the tribe’s first casino property outside Connecticut, where Foxwoods Resort Casino is the largest casino resort in the United States at 9 million square feet.
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