Developers provided the opening ripple today of what may be the start of the second wave of casino construction in Vicksburg.

Patches of grass on property adjacent to Rainbow Casino were turned over with shovels as elected officials and developers posed to signal the start of building the $100 million Riverwalk Casino and Hotel.

If completed on schedule in 18 months, it will be Vicksburg’s fifth casino.

Originally planned as Magnolia Hills and Pot of Gold Casino, it represents the first new construction in the gaming industry here in 13 years. It will sit on pilings on the Mississippi River on 22 acres and feature an 80-room hotel, 800 slots and, if long-term plans allow, a landscaped walkway highlighting views of the river.

Headed by a varied consortium of Chicago-based gaming interests and onetime Rainbow developer John R. Barrett Jr., the casino was touted as evidence of continued economic growth in Vicksburg.

&#8220This is the materialization of what I’ve been talking about,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said.

Greg Carlin, chief executive officer of Magnolia Hill LLC, 70 percent of which is owned by Chicago-based High River Gaming, said the business climate in Mississippi as a whole will help the venture succeed.

&#8220There’s a free-market approach to the gaming industry here,” Carlin said. &#8220It will help grow the market.”

Controlling interest in the casino will be held by Chicago real estate magnate Neil Bluhm.

Carlin and Barrett expressed a desire to be good community citizens. Carlin ended his remarks by presenting a $20,000 check to Audubon Mississippi, based downtown.

Barrett was joined Tuesday by the project’s architect, Nathan Boggan of Jackson-based Foil Wyatt Architects & Planners, to discuss slight changes to the physical layout of the development before the Vicksburg Zoning Board of Appeals, which OK’d the changes.

&#8220We have made slight changes that would lessen the impact on Warrenton Road,” Barrett said, adding they were made to &#8220improve the aesthetics.”

Changes included adjusting of a service road on the north side of the property for emergency vehicles and another access road connecting the property to that of Rainbow Casino next door, an addition that affected the angle of the parking garage.

&#8220There will be unlimited access between the two properties,” Boggan said.

Riverwalk will have 750 parking spaces, 325 of which will be in the garage, which will face Rainbow at an angle.

Barrett, still a stakeholder in the casino just to Riverwalk’s south he helped develop in 1994 listed for sale since October, said later if Rainbow is sold between now and Riverwalk’s completion, it &#8220will not affect” the development’s overall plans.

Zoning officials tied unanimous approval to other municipal regulations, such as approval of site development plans and permits for the building and stormwater management.

Conditions added as part of the board’s approval of the special exception granted the project in 2005 included relocating the driveway of the Giffin residence near the front-center of the property, aiming all lighting downward from existing homes on Warrenton Road, disallowance of parking or construction equipment on the street.

Boggan said the development will sit at or above 100-year flood elevation and all stormwater runoff will be filtered for oil and other hazardous substances.

&#8220It will be (filtered) appropriately to maintain the integrity of the river,” he said.

Also, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said, in addition to the conditions, a traffic count study is being conducted by ABMB Engineers to look at the possibility of adding a traffic signal on Warrenton Road to regulate the added traffic.

Residents’ concerns over quality of life issues the casino would present on Warrenton Road were discussed through a series of informal meetings since then, Barrett said.

Still, some gathered to voice requests to developers one more time on matters such as keeping erosion to a minimum on the property’s north side.

&#8220We would like to hear you go on record to water that sod,” said Warrenton Road resident Linda Hall, referring to a swath of earth behind their home the developers plan to use for fill.

Boggan said 36 soil borings have been conducted by a private geotechnical firm to make sure the land was stable behind the residences and, if need be, the casino will work to remediate whatever erosion occurs.

&#8220Everything should be just fine,” Boggan said.

Still seeking licenses from the state to operate casinos in Vicksburg are Lakes Entertainment Inc., which plans a $200 million development which may occupy 240 acres if company officials satisfy terms of a deal it reached with the City of Vicksburg to develop about 155 acres of right-of-way purchased from Kansas City Southern Railway.

If city officials deem the company’s work insufficient, the land could become part of a bicycle path the city has expressed interest in establishing along rail lines KCS has abandoned.

Lakes, along with the Mississippi Bluffs casino and golf complex planned a mile north on Warrenton Road, have secured extensions from the Mississippi Gaming Commission with each needing to present a financing package to MGC. Bluffs’ deadline to do so is Jan. 18, 2008, and Lakes’ is Feb. 15, 2009.

Both will also sit atop pilings on the river instead of floating inside it.

Officials with Vicksburg’s market share leader, Ameristar Casino, expect its vessel to be raised onto a concrete foundation this month, completing a process begun in November to incorporate it into its $158 million expansion effort.

Vicksburg’s casino market will become home to seven gaming facilities if all three proposed casinos are seen to completion. The existing four opened in an 11-month span in 1993 and 1994, beginning with Isle of Capri, which sold to Legends Gaming in 2006 and renamed DiamondJacks.

Horizon Casino was renamed when its parent company, Columbia-Sussex, purchased it from Harrah’s Entertainment in 2003.

Rainbow has been listed for sale since October by its parent company, Bally Technologies.