Choctaws ink deal with Hard Rock Cafe
By Staff
from staff and wire reports
Jan. 24, 2003
Band of Choctaw Indians said Thursday it will add a 300-room Hard Rock Hotel and a Hard Rock Beach Club to its Pearl River Resort in Neshoba County.
The Choctaw tribe signed a licensing agreement with Hard Rock Cafe International of Orlando, Fla., that allows the tribe to build and operate the hotel. The beach club will be a joint project with Hard Rock, which will operate the attractions.
Our goal is to continue to make strategic moves to further position the Pearl River Resort as the premiere regional entertainment, lodging and gaming destination in the Southeast,'' said Chief Phillip Martin of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
The beach club, a new offering for Hard Rock, is scheduled to open this summer when the resort opens its 9-acre private beach. The club will include heated pools, a restaurant, dance areas and several live-performance stages.
The Hard Rock Hotel, scheduled to open by 2006, will be the resort's third hotel. It will join the Silver Star Hotel &Casino, which opened in 1994, and the Golden Moon Hotel &Casino, which opened last year.
Economic boost
The new developments are expected to give another jolt to the Choctaw economy, as well as the economy in nearby Philadelphia and Neshoba County.
Booming resort
Besides the Silver Star, Golden Moon and planned Hard Rock attractions, the Pearl River Resort already is home to Geyser Falls, a $20 million water park that opened last summer.
Geyser Falls also is next to a future recreational development called Lake Pushmataha, named in honor of the legendary Choctaw chief.
The entire Pearl River resort already has 1,100 hotel rooms, 4,800 slot machines and 140 gaming tables. The two casinos are Mississippi's only land-based gambling houses.
Hard Rock Cafe International has hotels in Orlando, Las Vegas, Thailand and Bali and one under construction in Chicago. Hard Rock's agreement with the Choctaws is the second time the company has teamed with an Indian tribe.
The company partnered with the Seminole Indian tribe of Florida to build two resort casinos currently under construction in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla.
