Beau Rivage (Mississippi)

For other uses, see Beau Rivage.

Beau Rivage
Location	Biloxi, Mississippi
Address	875 Beach Blvd
Opening date	March 15, 1999
No. of rooms	1,740
Total gaming space	72,000 sq ft (6,700 m2)
Signature attractions	Eight75 Sports Book & Bar
Notable restaurants	BR Prime Jia Stalla
Casino type	Dockside
Owner	MGM Resorts International
Renovated in	2006
Website	beaurivage.com

Beau Rivage is a waterfront casino resort in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International. The Beau Rivage hotel is the tallest building in Mississippi. The term 'Beau Rivage' is French for 'beautiful shore'; the original, well-known hotels of that name are the Beau-Rivage Geneva and Beau-Rivage Palace, both in Francophone Switzerland.

Beau Rivage has won every major local, regional, and state award available for outstanding community service including the Governor's Cup Award for Outstanding Large Business in 2003. Beau Rivage was rebuilt and re-opened in 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina.

Beau Rivage restaurants include: BR Prime Steakhouse, Jia Pan-Asian Cuisine, Coast (seafood and wood-fired pizzas), Stalla Italian Cuisine, The Beau Rivage Buffet, Terrace Cafe (24-hour casual dining), Roasted Bean Coffee Bistro, Snacks (fast food), and 'Haagen-Dazs. Both BR Prime and Jia have earned the 4 star rating from AAA and Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence. The AAA Four Diamond Beau Rivage is the number one casino resort visited in Mississippi.

History

The land entrance side of the Beau Rivage, as seen pre-Katrina in 2002

The name of Beau Rivage was originally meant for the Bellagio casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip, however, developer Steve Wynn of Mirage Resorts changed Beau Rivage into Bellagio, and reserved this name for his new waterfront casino in Biloxi.

The Beau Rivage, with 1,740 rooms, opened in March 1999. At that time of its opening, it was the largest hotel/casino in the United States outside of Nevada. The casino was located on a series of floating barges as required by local law confining all casinos to mobile marine vessels at the time of the resort's construction. The hotel, restaurants, parking garage, and associated facilities were constructed on land. The height of the 29-floor hotel-casino is 346 ft (105 m).

Beau Rivage was seriously damaged by the 30 ft (9.1 m) storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, and was rebuilt by W.G. Yates & Sons Construction (the contractor that originally built it) and more than 50 subcontractors. Beau Rivage Resort & Casino re-opened its entire resort August 29, 2006 — the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Although the hotel tower survived relatively unscathed, the casino barge was significantly damaged. Beau Rivage was one of the few still recognizable buildings remaining on Biloxi's coast.

In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina and in the wake of the catastrophic damage to the coast's casinos in the hurricane, the Mississippi state legislature changed its laws regarding the placement of casinos. Instead of having to be on barges on the water, casinos may now be built on land as long as they are within 800 feet (240 m) of the shore.

In November 2006, the resort opened a new Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course named Fallen Oak.

In 2009 there were news reports that Beau Rivage's parent company MGM Mirage had hired investment firm Morgan Stanley to assist the company in finding possible buyers for the Biloxi property and its cousin the MGM Grand Detroit. The Beau Rivage and MGM Grand Detroit were considered to be MGM Mirage's top performing properties and if sold could fetch a total of $1–$2 billion which then would be used to lower MGM Mirage's debt load. In the event, no sale happened.

See also

• List of tallest buildings by U.S. state

External links

• Beau Rivage's Website
• Video of Hurricane Katrina taken from the Beau Rivage parking garage on Google Video
• Guest reviews of Beau Rivage on About.com
• W.G. Yates & Sons Construction