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Pinnacle Plans BR Casino/Hotel


richyb83

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Pinnacle Entertainment proposes a $250 million hotel and riverboat casino on 35 acres on River Road near the Bluebonnet Blvd. extension w/ (18.3 acre section of Miss. River batture was also purchased). Construction would begin in about a year pending approval. The proposal was not released entirely. Even if this passes w/ state regulators, it still must be approved by the Metro Council and parish voters in a local- option election. The next step is a review by Attorney General and State Police.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=5622751

A lawyer who lives nearby launched a website to help organize other opponets>http://www.nonewboat.com

This area south of BR cannot support the high volumes of traffic + nice new residential area's are being built nearby too.

*This is sure going to be interesting to watch develop. I personally do not think Baton Rouge can support a third casino. And the proposed location is ridiculous for many reasons. I think the City-Parish will reject these plans. If a third is built, it needs to be closer to Downtown BR near the Municipal Dock just to the south of the I-10 Mississippi River Bridge or WBR.

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Pinnacle Entertainment proposes a $250 million hotel and riverboat casino on 35 acres on River Road near the Bluebonnet Blvd. extension w/ (18.3 acre section of Miss. River batture was also purchased). Construction would begin in about a year pending approval. The proposal was not released entirely. Even if this passes w/ state regulators, it still must be approved by the Metro Council and parish voters in a local- option election. The next step is a review by Attorney General and State Police.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=5622751

A lawyer who lives nearby launched a website to help organize other opponets>http://www.nonewboat.com

This area south of BR cannot support the high volumes of traffic + nice new residential area's are being built nearby too.

*This is sure going to be interesting to watch develop. I personally do not think Baton Rouge can support a third casino. And the proposed location is ridiculous for many reasons. I think the City-Parish will reject these plans. If a third is built, it needs to be closer to Downtown BR near the Municipal Dock just to the south of the I-10 Mississippi River Bridge or WBR.

While the location obviously is less than excellent, I will say you'd be surprised at just how many casinos an area can handle. That said, I realize you guys are in close competition with THREE casino destinations: New Orleans, Lake Charles, and the Mississippi Coast.

I can recall, however, when this same debate was going on in Shreveport-Bossier about 10 years ago. No one knew if this market could handle a third casino, but it was coming anyway. As it turned out, the third casino actually GREW this market further and gave the area greater marketing power to reach thousands upon thousands of DFW-area residents. Then the fourth casino came onboard, and the same thing happened... the market grew a bit more. As it turns out, the FIFTH casino was our saturation point, and then the sixth casino, I truly believe put this market over the ledge. Our top casino (Horseshoe) is always among the top 3 casinos in the state but our sixth casino is probably the least profitable casino in the state, or at least in the bottom 5. That goes to show you the level of market oversturation.

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It figues everybody else in the state would have a " true" high-rise casino hotel...but not good ole Baton Rouge: New Orleans Harrah's, LaBerge du Lac in Lake Charles, Horseshoe in Bossier and the 2 in Shreveport.

If they insist on the BR Market??? Pinnacle should at least build a high-rise casino hotel south of I-10 Bridge near the Old Municipal Dock. Or send ir WBR's way....this is going to be a long battle...the property has already been purchased on Nicholson past Gardere/Bluebonnet Extension...so is it already too late??

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You know I do wonder why the casino industry tries to short change Baton Rouge when building their hotels, when in other markets they build nice, luxurious high rises :angry: . I think that Kip Holden should try to put a stop to this. If Pinnacle wants to move into the Baton Rouge market and run one of the other riverboats out of business, it should start by building a hotel that the other casinos don't have. But, if it is going to build a standard Baton Rouge hotel, maybe it should consider moving it's casino someplace else. :whistling:

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:dontknow: True yall! <_<

I will try to contact Kip Holden. I have met him a few times, he's very personable. You are right bobby, this must stop...actually I can't believe this was even an option? STUPID & BONEHEADED!!!!

Someone said Kip liked the idea because of the extra-tax revenue for EBR. $$$ signs are blinding some :dontknow:

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It figues everybody else in the state would have a " true" high-rise casino hotel...but not good ole Baton Rouge: New Orleans Harrah's, LaBerge du Lac in Lake Charles, Horseshoe in Bossier and the 2 in Shreveport.

If they insist on the BR Market??? Pinnacle should at least build a high-rise casino hotel south of I-10 Bridge near the Old Municipal Dock. Or send ir WBR's way....this is going to be a long battle...the property has already been purchased on Nicholson past Gardere/Bluebonnet Extension...so is it already too late??

I think the fact that New Orleans is just a destination, without a doubt, is what made it such a great place to build a high-rise. And with Shreveport-Bossier and Lake Charles being major Texas feeder markets, it made sense to build high-rise hotels here as well. I think it would be nice if they would build a high-rise hotel in Baton Rouge, but because of the close proximity to New Orleans, Biloxi, and Lake Charles I can understand their reservations. But man it would look nice, especially with the other projects planned. That said, however, if River Place is a huge success, I'd be very surprised if downtown Baton Rouge didn't get more classy high-rises like it. If that happens, a high-rise casino hotel would be the last thing on your mind.

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Thanks Brian for the sending some comfortable words back our way. BR has been so backwards for so long; but more recently has made some serious strides in the right direction. But still we have these back-wards things that still come our way.

We got a good young new BR Area Chamber leader named Stephen Moret who has done alot already for BR. He's got more to accomplish he says; well I need to call him and plenty more like Kip Holden, Wampold, Downtown Dev.District, Pinnacle, etc. They need a to hear Plan B or C.

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Thanks Brian for the sending some comfortable words back our way. BR has been so backwards for so long; but more recently has made some serious strides in the right direction. But still we have these back-wards things that still come our way.

We got a good young new BR Area Chamber leader named Stephen Moret who has done alot already for BR. He's got more to accomplish he says; well I need to call him and plenty more like Kip Holden, Wampold, Downtown Dev.District, Pinnacle, etc. They need a to hear Plan B or C.

Hey, I can understand backward. You should read some of the comments made on the Shreveport Times forums. When the news was in that we'd just elected our first black mayor, all the racists came out and started saying some really disgusting things. When good news was posted about more retail/dining development in southeast Shreveport, all the negative people came out saying "Oh no, this will add more traffic!" and "Shreveport sucks anyway so why are they building all this stuff in a sucky city!"

Believe me, Richy, I understand backward. Small-town thinking really stifles positive developments in decent-sized cities. Shreveport and Baton Rouge both obviously suffer from that, and I hope to see it change. I think River Place is helping to change that in Baton Rouge. New Orleans has always been a large city, and it's a VERY accepting place, so I doubt they have too much problem with small-town thinkers.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

They are definitely trying to warm people up to the idea... have you seen the commercials? They make themselves seem like the next best thing for Baton Rouge but I'm not convinced.

I noticed the ad campaign that started over the weekend. The biggest problem I have with their plan is the location. I would LOVE to see them develop this deal some where close to downtown if not downtown. The old Advocate location, The parking lot that will sit between RiverPlace and the Hilton or the old location of the Prince Murat Hotel would all be better locations for a 3rd Casino/Hotel complex.

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I noticed the ad campaign that started over the weekend. The biggest problem I have with their plan is the location. I would LOVE to see them develop this deal some where close to downtown if not downtown. The old Advocate location, The parking lot that will sit between RiverPlace and the Hilton or the old location of the Prince Murat Hotel would all be better locations for a 3rd Casino/Hotel complex.
EXACTLY Byrde, I could not have said it better :thumbsup:

They are definitely trying to warm people up to the idea... have you seen the commercials? They make themselves seem like the next best thing for Baton Rouge but I'm not convinced.

Thanks for mentioning that. I'm not convinced either. There plan will fail at their proposed current stupid location. The only way it has a chance is the above^ location mentioned!

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I have generally not been impressed with Pinnacle's properties in Mississippi. The former Casino Magic properties were the nicest of them and those barely passed muster. Mostly, they have built things like the bottom-feeding Boomtown which the Coast could well do without. I have heard that L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles is fairly nice, but overall, I would question the quality of their development projects. Perhaps this one will be more like the property in Lake Charles. I hope so.

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I have generally not been impressed with Pinnacle's properties in Mississippi. The former Casino Magic properties were the nicest of them and those barely passed muster. Mostly, they have built things like the bottom-feeding Boomtown which the Coast could well do without. I have heard that L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles is fairly nice, but overall, I would question the quality of their development projects. Perhaps this one will be more like the property in Lake Charles. I hope so.

If it is like the property in Lake Charles, then it will be very nice.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still very flustered about this. The Bluebonnet Corridor, if done properly, has potential to be a great neighborhood with neigborhood shopping and good infrastructure.

I'd hate to see a Casino Hotel there. I'd hate to see anything bigger than a Winn Dixie in that area. That is a good location for residential if they can build it up enough. That is a place for churches, schools, houses, condos, and even a small baseball park (Burbank has the soccer thing covered). Maybe if they designed it in a way where you couldnn't see it from Bluebonnet or Nicholson.....but they wouldn't go for that.

We had mentioned it earlier....the old hotel on Nicholson just south of I-10 (Old South) that is torn down is a much better location. It might actually help the other casinos and Downtown. That neighborhood is on an upswing. Lots of new developemnts (what I like to call "lib-lofts" or "artsy-marts") are popping up all over. Judging by the prices, those new developments are attracting either very rich LSU fans or very rich downtown workers. If they let Casino Rouge have a River Road/railroad walk-over, then they can give Pinacle a Walkover for both as well. It would be really cool to incorporate a retail development Bossier City style under the I10 bridge where Pastime is now btw Casino Rouge and Pinnacle.

Its just an obvious perfect location. Why am I in the minority here?

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We had mentioned it earlier....the old hotel on Nicholson just south of I-10 (Old South) that is torn down is a much better location. It might actually help the other casinos and Downtown. That neighborhood is on an upswing. Lots of new developemnts (what I like to call "lib-lofts" or "artsy-marts") are popping up all over. Judging by the prices, those new developments are attracting either very rich LSU fans or very rich downtown workers. If they let Casino Rouge have a River Road/railroad walk-over, then they can give Pinacle a Walkover for both as well. It would be really cool to incorporate a retail development Bossier City style under the I10 bridge where Pastime is now btw Casino Rouge and Pinnacle.

Its just an obvious perfect location. Why am I in the minority here?

Man that makes sooooo much since. I don't understand why Pinnacle wants to build down river road near Bluebonnet when the location along Nicholson mentioned ^^^ would be a better location.

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  • 2 weeks later...

When I came home eariler this month, I saw the commercials. I didn't pay much attention to them. I don't understand why this company, didn't come in and made an attempt to develop the area in Port Allen by the old ferry. They could have cleaned that area up nicely. A lot of my family live over there. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to see some tall buildings or and a stadium on that side. Another plus to West BR would be the drinking. I don't like the idea of a casino cannot serve alc on Sundays.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think part of the reason Pinnacle wants that space way out in the burbs is because it needs lots of space. The article said they want some nongaming amenities like bowlings alleys, an ice skating rink, aand a movie theater.

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I think part of the reason Pinnacle wants that space way out in the burbs is because it needs lots of space. The article said they want some nongaming amenities like bowlings alleys, an ice skating rink, aand a movie theater.

They could still have enough room for all of that closer to downtown just South of the I-10 Bridge near the old Municipal Dock. Perfect fit between Downtown and LSU near the booming Nicholson corridor. Those idiots had wished they listened to me after it gets voted down by residents of EBR 2 to 1. <_<

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  • 1 month later...

I know that this is not close to downtown, but I'm sort of glad that Pinnacle has decided to move it's casino further north from the Bluebonnet intersection to the Gardere area :whistling: . The Gardere area could really use a make over and it's kinda weird seeing this crime, poverty filled area in the middle of the suburbs. By Pinnacle moving close to this area, I feel that it will cause the leaders of Baton Rouge to apply more pressure to push the criminal elements out of this area. So, even though it is not good news for downtown, it's good news for an area that could really use a makeover.

I probably will vote for this development to happen, not for gambling reasons because I don't gamble, but for the positive effects it will have on the Gardere community. Also, I have no sympathy for the Hollywood and the Belle casinos because they have done little for downtown Baton Rouge. At first I felt bad for them, but seeing how the casinos look in Shreveport :cry: I could care less if they go out of business. I know that if one of them goes out of business it would not be good for downtown, but I believe that Baton Rouge is in a progressive stage right now, and it will be able to find something bigger and better that is willing to invest in the city of Baton Rouge. :D

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