Historic eyesore

The South Mississippi Sun Herald

March 18, 2008

History buffs will tell you the old White House Hotel on the beach in Biloxi is historic. Many locals believe it has a long history of being an eyesore.

Two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, the turn-of-the-century hotel near Keesler Air Force Base looks as if it was just hit by the worst natural disaster in modern times. At first glance, tourists might think the storm was last week.

Truth is, the old hotel has been one of the Coast's eyesores for years. Even before Katrina.

Last month, the Sun Herald asked readers what they believed were the Coast's worst eyesores. There was no shortage of votes for the White House.

'I think one of the biggest eyesores on the Coast is the large vacant skeleton of a building that is on the corner of U.S. 90 and White Avenue,' one reader wrote. 'It seems to me that building has been a wreck since well before Katrina.'

For a brief time in the late 1990s the site was a busy construction zone. It appeared the old hotel was making a comeback, but the momentum faded about four years before Katrina.

The owner, James S. Love III, the former owner of WLOX, purchased the hotel in 1989 for sentimental reasons. His father owned the hotel from 1940 to 1972.

His intent has consistently been to restore the hotel but something always seemed to get in the way: a slumping economy, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Katrina.

Love hired Lolly Barnes, the city's historical administrator, to get the project back on track in 2005.

'We are still working very hard to find a development solution for the property,' Barnes said recently. 'There are certainly a lot of incentives that are available now that weren't there before Katrina.'

Barnes said Love funded a market study in December, based on a plan to restore the property into a 144-room hotel. The study estimated itwould take about $60 million to complete.

Meantime, City Hall said it plans to take Love to court next month over the neglected hotel.

'We would still like to see the White House returned to its splendor of the past,' said Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel. 'But we are going to court in April. We have notified them of our concerns, such as debris and weeded areas of the property and whether they can do more to secure the site.'

Barnes said Love has spent more than $38,000 to maintain the property since the storm and new incentives could cut the restoration cost nearly in half.

In addition, Love is looking for a managing partner to help ease the financial burden. But there is no solid deal in the works and no timeline on when the hotel will go from decaying relic to luxurious resort.

'There's no timeline or a deal, but we are definitely working on finding a solution,' Barnes said. 'People in the community really want the property brought back and we are certainly trying to be good neighbors and make sure the property is kept up in the meantime.'

Seen an eyesore?

If you know of an eyesore you'd like spotlighted by the Sun Herald, call Ryan LaFontaine at 896-2340 or e-mail him at rlafontaine@sunherald.com.

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