Louisiana floating casino starts work at $100M site on land
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KENNER, La. (AP) — After nearly 30 years, a floating casino in suburban New Orleans is poised to relocate to land.
Treasure Chest Casino officials broke ground Tuesday on a new site, which will house a development of more than $100 million. It will replace the current riverboat when it opens in 2024.
The new facility, owned by Nevada-based Boyd Gaming, will include a 47,000-square-foot gambling hall and 10,000 square feet of convention space as well as new restaurants, bars and a FanDuel Sportsbook. The existing riverboat casino is expected to remain open during construction.
A change in state law in 2018 allowed for floating casinos to move to locations on land. The Treasure Chest will become the third boat in the state to do so. The Isle of Capri floating casino in Lake Charles and the Hollywood Casino project in Baton Rouge will also move gambling operations landside, officials have said.
The project is part of a larger push to revitalize Kenner’s Laketown neighborhood into a new entertainment destination, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. In August, the Jefferson Parish Council set aside more than $2 million to renovate the nearby boat launch on Lake Pontchartrain.
“With the new set-up we anticipate increased revenue to the residents of the city of Kenner, which will aid in capital projects,” Mayor Michael Glaser told the newspaper.
Last year, Las Vegas-based Atlantis Gaming announced plans for a new $450 million, 40-acre “total destination resort” in Laketown, with shops, condominiums, and possibly gambling. The status of that proposed development remains unclear.
