Biloxi booming after Katrina, spill disasters
BILOXI, Miss. - In the last six years, this tourist city on the Gulf Coast has suffered one setback after another from Hurricane Katrina to the BP oil spill.
But this year, there's no more Biloxi blues. Things are finally looking up, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.
Rising steel, construction workers and dreams backed by money used to be common sights before the recession took both away.
In Biloxi, Miss., they can be seen again all over this historic Gulf Coast city.
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Finally, Brent Pierotich's family is rebuilding Sharkheads, a third-generation souvenir shop and landmark here.
Katrina took their main store in 2005, along with 90 percent of Biloxi's beachfront.
The family survived with one smaller store but hope to thrive in its new construction project, 27,000 square feet of retail space.
"At the end of 2010, we started driving pilings, and now we're going in full force trying to get open for March of 2012," Pierotich said.
Suddenly Biloxi has what so many American communities want: A new building boom, dozens of ongoing projects with more developers applying for building permits every week.
In an interview with CBS' "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge Tuesday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said the city had to take on major rebuilding projects after Katrina.
"A lot of people down there would say, 'Well Biloxi actually came back a little bit more slowly,' because it had some issues other places didn't, but it's blowing and going now," Barbour, a Republican, told Wragge.
It's not the number of projects that's striking. It's their size and value, roughly $300 million dollars' worth since late last year. That's almost triple the value of new construction Biloxi has seen each year during the recession.
"This brings another element to Biloxi that we've really needed," said Jerry Creel, the city's community development director.
He showed us Biloxi's biggest new project, Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett's vision for a $44 million restaurant and casino.
One factor behind Biloxi's 9.3 percent unemployment rate and the state's 10.3 percent unemployment rate is that gambling hasn't bounced back from the recession, Barbour said.
"The gaming industry has not come back as fast and as strong, and that's not unique to Mississippi if you look to Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other places," Barbour told Wragge.
But, for Biloxi, there's more than gaming.
"We have a little bit of everything," said Creel. "We have restaurants. We have retail. We have a super Wal-Mart under construction, but all of it adds up."
Local leaders hope it all adds up to something else: Jobs. Margaritaville alone is expected to create up to 650 jobs.
"I think the lending has eased up in the past year," Creel said.
During the recession, banks toughened credit requirements. Now those purse strings seem to be finally loosening.
"The projects that we're looking at have the funding approved before they even come into our office," said Creel, "so that's the biggest difference between this year and last year."
It's an overdue break in a community battered by bad luck: Katrina, a stubborn recession and last summer's BP spill.
Something else is different now: People's confidence is back, a bit of the old swagger.
"You know, boom boom, right after another, we feel that America is on the uptick now," said Pierotich. "We feel like it is a good time to go ahead and start our project."
People here sense, just maybe, they're on a roll again.
