Louisiana: Here’s latest on Diamond Jacks Casino sale to Cordish, fate of the old riverboat in Bossier

That sets the stage for the expected approval of the sale of the property and accompanying gaming license to Cordish, a family-owned company headquartered in Baltimore with extensive international operations in gaming.

The Gaming Control Board gave its approval last spring for Cordish to advance with an agreement to buy Diamond Jacks from Foundation Gaming, which had just won approval for its purchase of the abandoned property in December 2022.

But Cordish must still clear a suitability investigation by Louisiana State Police before the Gaming Control Board can grant final approval for the company's acquisition of the gaming license.

In the meantime, Foundation has continued with the demolition process.

Johns said his goal is for the suitability investigation and final approval for the sale to be complete this fall and believes construction on the property, including the first true land-based casino in the Shreveport-Bossier market, could begin in the first quarter of 2025.

He said 2025 is his target for a grand reopening of the property. "There's no doubt Cordish will be approved," Johns said in an interview with USA Today Network. "The company's record is impeccable."

Johns toured the Diamond Jacks site this month. "They've completely demoed the hotel rooms and meeting rooms; the structure itself is sound," he said. "The boat has been sold and will literally be cut up and trucked out of there; it couldn't be floated out."

In April the company's top executive of its gaming division promised Cordish will deliver a "game-changing" project that will vault the property into a destination gaming resort after years of musical chairs ownership.

Cordish will reflag the property with it's Live! Casino brand and invest $250 million or more in transforming the dilapidated campus. "We intend for it to be a game-changing project for the Bossier City market," said Cordish Gaming CEO Rob Norton in April.

Cordish's gaming division generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue with casinos in Maryland, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Tampa and Hollywood, Fla.

Among the highlights Cordish plans for the property, which will include a hotel and land-based casino: a PBR Cowboy Bar, which Norton called a "powerhouse" nightclub; its branded Sports & Social bar and sports book; at least 400 hotel rooms; 25,000-square-feet of renovated event space; and about six food and beverage stations with at least two fine dining restaurants.

"We plan to rebuild the event space and focus on bringing entertainment back to the market," Norton said.

Norton said he believes the company can leverage the connectivity of the Bossier City property with Cordish's Texas Live! entertainment district nestled between the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park and the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium and anchored by a Loews hotel in Arlington.

Diamond Jacks has been closed since the spring of 2020, a casualty of what previous owner Peninsula Pacific called the "unexpected impact" of the COVID pandemic. The dilapidated campus has been vacant ever since.

The property was the first casino to open in the Shreveport-Bossier market, starting business at the Isle of Capri in 1994.