JACKSON – A chance to add more attractions to a planned casino, golf and shopping off Warrenton Road was a driving force behind the desire to have the Mississippi Bluffs casino site plan changed, developer Paul Bunge said Thursday.

The Mississippi Gaming Commission unanimously approved the slight change in location, one that also now has the structure sitting on pilings instead of floating in the Mississippi River.

Actual construction now faces one more hurdle, perhaps the largest – obtaining investors and financing.

It is one of three pending projects for the Vicksburg market, now home to four casino operations.

Touted as &#8220an asset to the city of Vicksburg and the state of Mississippi,” the 50,000-square-foot facility would feature 1,500 slot machines and 36 table games with a 232-room hotel overlooking the casino and a 510-space parking garage.

Additionally, Bunge said, the change to a building still above water but on pilings would put it adjacent to the 18th hole of the golf course planned to the east of the development and frees up space for an auditorium or restaurant on the property.

The golf course, planned by a design firm owned by three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin, and outlet shopping space on the site would be managed by Bunge’s Colorado-based firm Silver Tip Project Partners LLC.

The cost of the total project was pegged at $190 million by Bunge and legal counsel from Phelps-Dunbar Law Firm representing the company.

The commission initially approved a Mississippi Bluffs plan in July, and the company then obtained a special zoning exception from the City of Vicksburg. Another appearance before the city zoning board is now necessary to provide the same development changes explained to state regulators Thursday.

The development would use about 40 acres of land formerly owned by Vicksburg Chemical plant, part of a 480-acre tract on both sides of Warrenton Road.

The chemical company’s parent company went bankrupt in 2002 and the deed to the 480 acres was transferred by the bankruptcy court to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

In July, MDEQ deeded the land to Bunge, a Colorado resident, in return for a pledge from his development group to pay for an $8 million cleanup on the 50 or 60 acres where the plant stood. About 20 acres are said to be contaminated.

The Dutch company Arcadis is handling cleanup of the contaminated acres, while a subsidiary of Harcros Chemical charged with demolishing the plant structure itself, has leased with Silver Tip a portion of land on the north side for use a chemical distribution center.

The location of Mississippi Bluffs puts it just south of Interstate 20 and just north of both Rainbow Casino and another proposed operation, Riverwalk Casino.

Investors in the $42 million Riverwalk development are said to be nearing completion of a financial package to present to state regulators, the third step for obtaining a casino license in Mississippi.

Reached Thursday, John Maxey, a Jackson attorney representing Riverwalk, said a secondary partner from Chicago has joined principals John A. Barrett and Lee Seippel, strengthening the chances the group will beat a July 14 deadline to present its financing plan to the Gaming Commission.

Bunge assured the commission’s three-member panel that his development group will &#8220move as quickly as possible” in lining up enough money to see Mississippi Bluffs through to construction.

&#8220We hope to close in on three or four funding sources,” he said.

Approval of a location and a plan to develop a location are the first two steps in that process, hurdles cleared by Riverwalk two years ago when it was known as Magnolia Hills Resort and Pot of Gold Casino.

A third proposed casino, one by Lakes Entertainment of Minnesota, must do so next month to avoid starting the licensing process all over again.

Pitched as a $200 million development complete with a hotel and restaurant, the project approved for Meadow Lane off U.S. 61 South has until Feb. 16 to show its finances to the commission.

Attorneys for the project have visited the commission offices in the past month to discuss changes to its site, termed minor, Executive Director Larry K. Gregory said.

In the past, some developments have asked the state for extensions, Gregory said, adding developers must explain reasons if they do.

The most recent casino opening here was in 1994. Two of the original four have changed ownership, Harrah’s to Horizon in 2003 and Isle of Capri to DiamondJacks in July 2006. Rainbow was put up for sale in October by its parent company, Bally Technologies.

Together, they have pumped more than $10 million in annual tax revenue to Vicksburg and Warren County.

Figures released by the Mississippi State Tax Commission to local officials here show $1,655,685.71 paid to Vicksburg in the first three months of fiscal year 2006-07 and $728,848.64 to Warren County.

Both totals are behind the pace of 2005-06, when local casinos saw business swell after Hurricane Katrina, when the Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos closed for more than three months.

The Legislature OK’d casino development along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast in 1990 and the first casino opened in Vicksburg in August 1993. During the initial flurry, as many as 10 projects were announced for sites up and down the riverfront and Yazoo Diversion Canal.