Harrah's New Orleans has tapped Samir Mowad to be its new general manager as it starts talks with City Hall and other stakeholders on a $325 million new hotel and casino upgrade.
Caesars Entertainment Inc., Harrah's parent company, said Wednesday that New Orleans native Mowad will return to run Harrah's after a five-year stint running Caesars' Iowa businesses, which includes two casinos, a convention center and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel, all located in Council Bluffs across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska.
Harrah's New Orleans, like many other businesses in the city, closed in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been operating at 25% of capacity for the past two months since some restrictions were lifted by Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
The plan to upgrade the casino and build a new hotel was part of a deal reached with Louisiana and New Orleans governments last year in return for a 30-year extension of Caesars' license to run the casino, starting in 2024 when the current license expires.
Talks to hammer out the details and the permissions needed to start building were stalled by the pandemic. But Mowad said Harrah's officials were scheduled to make the first presentations of the plan to City Hall staff on Wednesday afternoon to get the project back on track.
Mowad originally joined Harrah's to open the Masquerade night club in 2005, but he left the city after Hurricane Katrina that year. He previously pulled a one-year stint as assistant general manager to Dan Real at Harrah's New Orleans, before his move to Iowa.
"Being a native of New Orleans is invaluable" for Mowad, said Real, who now will be Caesars' regional boss. "This is his home, and his deep connection to the community will be felt throughout the property.”
The main part of the expansion project is building a new hotel tower adjacent to the current 26-story, 450-room hotel on Poydras Street. In gaining approval for the plan, Caesars argued that it needed more space as it was losing money having to "comp" tens of thousands of rooms for its high-rollers each year at other hotels.
Eldorado Resorts' $17.3 billion takeover of Caesar's Entertainment Corp. is not likely to impact the deal struck last month by the Louisiana s…
The plan for the new 340-room hotel is to erect it above the existing casino site at the foot of Canal Street, with the entrance at the casino's current entrance and driveway at the intersection of Canal and Convention Center Boulevard.
Part of Caesars' pledge on the license extension deal was that it would continue to employ at least 2,400 people and add 500 staff after the hotel was built. It also committed to pay for various state and city infrastructure projects, including $19.5 million over three years to New Orleans.
The pandemic shut-down threw that off track as gambling revenue plummeted and Harrah's reduced minimum agreed payments and furloughed some staff, with leeway granted by state and local authorities until business conditions improve.
"The city and the state have granted us some temporary relief which we’re super appreciative of," Mowad said.
"Long term, we have our employment requirements and so we have no intention of going down the road that maybe other companies have with layoffs," he added. "Long term, we expect both business and licensing requirements to get back to normal."
Caesars became the largest gambling group in the country in July when it was taken over by Eldorado Resorts, which retained the name of the more familiar acquisition target. The $17.3 billion takeover process took a year and included an order by federal regulators that the combined group sell several casinos, including the Eldorado Casino Resort in Shreveport.
In addition to Harrah's New Orleans, the only land-based casino in Louisiana, Caesars now owns four floating casinos: the Belle of Baton Rouge, Isle of Capri Casino Hotel in Lake Charles, Harrah’s Louisiana Downs in Bossier City and Horseshoe Bossier City.
Gambling has been among the industries hardest hit by the pandemic, with casinos and related hotels furloughing or laying off thousands of workers. Caesars Louisiana has issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notices for two of its Louisiana operations, Harrah's Louisiana Downs and Horseshoe Bossier City, warning that almost 1,200 furloughed workers might be permanently laid off.
Mowad, a Jesuit and LSU graduate, said he doesn't expect it will come to that at Harrah's New Orleans.
