Cautious optimism is the feeling among the managers of the casino at the Divi Carina Bay Resort after Hurricane Lenny set the project back more than three months.
Although they are shooting for a March 1 opening, the team at the new resort and casino made it clear Thursday that isn’t a drop-dead date. While construction has been continuous since Lenny virtually destroyed the second floor of the in-progress casino in November and subsequently blew away a Dec. 15 ribbon-cutting, the resort and casino’s general manager didn’t want to predict an exact opening day again.
Because there are many variables involved, Alan Mallory said, "We’re not coming out with a firm opening date."
"We’re looking at a March 1 or early March opening," he said.
And while Bernie Burkholder, chief executive officer of Treasure Bay V.I., the company that will operate the casino, said he has high hopes for the territory’s first, and so far only, gaming establishment, he too set out to temper people’s overall expectations of the casino.
"It looks like we’re doing very well," Burkholder said, but cautioned that "there are probably any one of one hundred things that could go wrong to delay it. But we are tracking diligently for a March 1 opening."
While Burkholder said the casino will "mark a new day for St. Croix" and help stimulate other business, he also said it and the resort were not going to be the savior of the island’s beleaguered economy.
"We’re struggling very hard to fit into the overall picture of St. Croix," he said. "The anticipation and hopes of some people was that we're going to be the cure-all. I don’t think that’s going to happen."
The remodeled Divi Carina Bay Resort reopened on Nov. 3, a few weeks before Hurricane Lenny mashed up the island. The resort, on Grapetree Bay on St. Croix’s southeast shore, had stood derelict since 1989's Hurricane Hugo. The totally remodeled resort features 126 oceanfront rooms in the main hotel and 20 one-bedroom suites in four hillside villas.
Grapetree Shores Inc., which owns the resort and casino, has hired a Divi Resorts affiliate to manage the hotel. Grapetree is leasing the casino operation to Treasure Bay V.I. Corp., a local affiliate of Treasure Bay Corp., which operates a large casino in Biloxi, Miss.
The two-story casino will have 300 slot machines, 13 gaming tables, buffet, snack bar and gift shop. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m seven days a week.
