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From the Chicago Breaking Business: “Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville coming to Navy Pier”

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant is sailing into Navy Pier for a 10-year run.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the pier, approved the lease Wednesday morning.

“So, we’ll have the Caribbean in February on Navy Pier,” said David Mosena, board chairman. The authority is hoping the restaurant and entertainment venue will serve as an attendance magnet year-round.

Buffett, in a prepared statement, expressed his excitement for the new venue, targeted to open next spring.

“From my earliest days in the city, playing the Quiet Knight on Belmont, to the pinnacle of live performances to me, singing in front of the ivy wall at Wrigley Field, I have had a long and wonderful history and affection for the people, the music, the art and the food of the Windy City. I have always thought of Chicago as a beach town, a pretty big one, but still a beach town.”

Terms of the deal were not immediately available.

The restaurant beat out 10 other bidders, including the current tenant in the space, Charlie’s Ale House.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Trump Entertainment puts Trump Marina in Atlantic City up for sale again”

The on-again, off-again courtship between Coastal and Trump Entertainment came up in the bankruptcy hearings earlier this year. Robert Pickus, Trump Entertainment’s general counsel, said costly litigation in Florida involving the casino company and Richard T. Fields, chairman of Coastal Marina, an affiliate of Coastal Development, would be dismissed with the sale of Trump Marina to Coastal.

But Thursday, Fields said Coastal was no longer interested, and he rebuked Juliano and Trump Entertainment for trying to use Coastal to solicit higher offers.

“Coastal made a written offer to purchase the Marina on Aug. 23, 2010, and was prepared to place half of the purchase price in escrow,” Fields said. “The company never responded. . . . Last week, we formally withdrew our offer.”

The Knowland Group has released a survey: “Jimmy Buffett Benefit Concert Paradise for Hoteliers and Tourists”

The Knowland Group™, the world’s largest data firm in the global meetings and conventions industry, today released a survey on the effects of the Jimmy Buffett Gulf Coast Benefit Concert on the local hospitality industry. The survey, conducted two weeks after the concert was completed, found many hotels within 75 miles of Gulf Shores, AL were booked, but future reservations failed to materialize.

Specifically, of the hotels surveyed, 49% reported that more than half of their guests who stayed at their hotel attended the concert. In addition, 45% of responding hotels stated that less than half of their guests attended the concert. Of those concert attendees, 41% stayed one night and 53% stayed two nights; making up for the evaporation of the usual weekend vacationers following the oil spill.

“I saw people in line at the bars and the souvenir shops,” stated an Orange Beach, AL hotelier. “This concert was the greatest thing we [sic] ever had in our area.”

The increase in room bookings was welcomed by the surveyed hoteliers, with 89% claiming the event was very helpful to their business and 11% stating it was somewhat helpful. None of the survey’s respondents stated that the concert had any ill effect.

“I even had a waiting list for my hotel and I can’t remember the last time that happened,” noted one Gulf Shores hotelier.

From HIGH-DEF DISC News: “Jimmy Buffett Performs On the World’s Largest Mobile LED Screen”

Fans enjoyed a somewhat impromptu performance with one impressive view.

Even if you don’t like Jimmy Buffett, there’s something wonderful about watching anything on a 33 foot truck-mounted LED screen. It’s one of those things you just don’t get to do every day.

BSUN Media Systems was the group in charge of setting up the simulcast for Jimmy Buffett’s recent charity concert, and they called on the GoVision mobile LED screen known as GoBigger. “We put the screen on a barge – no small feat – and had a tugboat pull the giant truck-mounted screen on the barge up to the dock,” explains BSUN owner Brad Sundberg.

2,500 people attended the resulting concert, though the screen was visible from up to a quarter of a mile away.

Fox10TV has an article on Jimmy Buffett donating a boat to help in the wildlife rescue effort: “Wildlife rescue boat donated by Buffett”

Alabama Unified Command’s efforts to recover wildlife along the Gulf Coast were enhanced with the donation of a special boat from singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

The popular entertainer has donated a boat to help recover oil-soaked wildlife. The boat, built by Dragonfly Boatworks in Vero Beach, Fla., was designed specifically to navigate the shallow waters and marshes of the Gulf Coast to retrieve injured wildlife.

The boat will play an important role in the efforts of Alabama Unified Command to ensure that local wildlife are rescued and transported to rehabilitation centers.

The boat is scheduled to begin wildlife recovery operations during the week of July 19.

Related article: Jimmy Buffett and Dragonfly Boatworks to Donate Boat to Assist In Wildlife Rescue Operations

The Sun Herald has an article on the stalled Biloxi Margaritaville Casino project: “Holloway shows impatience with idle casino”

Mayor A.J. Holloway said Wednesday he has little hope that Harrah’s Entertainment will finish building the Margaritaville Casino on the beach and he thinks Harrah’s may demolish what is on the site.

“I think Margaritaville is through — at that location,” Holloway said during Breakfast with the Mayor, sponsored by the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce at the Donal Snyder Community Center.

Last week, he talked with John Payne, the central division president of Harrah’s Entertainment, who told him the company is not in negotiations with any investors, Holloway said.

The mayor said he is frustrated when he reads that Harrah’s is buying properties when the project in Biloxi has remained idle since 2008.

From ABC News: “Hopes Fade for Quick Restart on Harrah’s Casino”

A sign still welcomes passers-by to the future site of Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, but most people agree the project doesn’t have a chance of getting built any time soon.

“Odds that this project gets built in the next five to 10 years are slim to none,” said Joel Simkins, senior vice president of Macquarie Capital USA.

When announced in 2007, Margaritaville — a joint venture of Harrah’s Entertainment and entertainer Jimmy Buffett — was expected to cost more than $700 million and open by spring 2010.

The Margaritaville brand, associated with Buffett, could attract a wider customer base than typical for existing casinos, Martin said.

“We’re hopeful the project will get back on track. We’ve been through a lot; and we’re still going through a lot,” Martin said of tourism on the coast, whose latest challenge is the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If Harrah’s does go ahead with the casino, it will not have start from scratch with the regulatory process, said Allen Godfrey, deputy director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

The commission views the project as temporarily suspended, he said.

From Examiner.com “BP shuts down Jimmy Buffett and Dragonfly Boatworks efforts to help Gulf Coast wildlife”

Just days after the news broke of the disaster BP created in the Gulf Coast area, Jimmy Buffett teamed up with Vero Beach boat builders Dragonfly Boatworks to design and build special “S.W.A.T” boats to help rescue the wildlife in the area. (Read full article here)

Today Mark Castlow, owner of Dragonfly Boatworks in Vero Beach, announced that BP has put a stop to their efforts.

Dragonfly Boatworks was scheduled to launch their 2nd of four S.W.A.T.( Shallow Water Attention Terminal) boats for use by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Unfortunately, BP’s Incident Command Center has halted Dragonfly’s efforts to save the wildlife BP has single-handedly destroyed.

If you missed the Dragonfly Boatworks episode of Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday night, it will be rebroadcast Wedensday, June 23 at 10 p.m on CNN.

USA Today Article: “Jimmy Buffett’s Gulf rescue mission: Saving marine life“