Casino Journal

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Pinnacle to build new casino next to L'Auberge du Lac
  
Pinnacle Entertainment has announced plans to build a new $350 million casino-hotel adjacent to its L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino in Lake Charles, La. The project falls on the heels of Pinnacle's deal with Harrah's Entertainment Inc., in which the companies essentially traded Pinnacle's Hurricane Katrina-damaged Biloxi, Miss., casino for Harrah's Hurricane Rita-damaged Lake Charles property. Pinnacle also paid Harrah's $25 million in the deal.
 
  The new resort, dubbed Sugarcane Bay, will feature a single-level riverboat casino surrounded by a hotel and amenities. The facility will connect to L'Auberge du Lac via a tunnel and shuttle services, and will be similar in size.

  "Sugarcane Bay will evoke the laid-back island feeling of the Caribbean, combined with gracious Southern hospitality in an environment of comfortable luxury," the company said in a press release. "The resort will feature 400 guestrooms and suites, many with panoramic views of beautiful Contraband Bayou."
 
  The casino is expected to have 1,500 slot machines, a poker room, table games, restaurants, shopping, "a tropical pool area and an island spa."
 
  Assuming the project wins approval of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board and a local vote, construction will begin in 2007, with a 2009 opening expected. Pinnacle CEO Dan Lee said he does not yet have information on what the company will do with the other Harrah's license it purchased, but a 250-room expansion of L'Auberge du Lac is planned. Construction is scheduled to start in August and be finished next year, at which point L'Auberge du Lac would have a total of 1,000 rooms and suites.
 
  -Darby Harris