The potential for DiamondJacks Hotel and Casino to become a successful property and knowledge of the Vicksburg gaming market were among the factors that influenced Foundation Gaming Group to acquire the property in October, a company executive said.

“We understood the market extremely well, and we knew the capabilities of what this property had,” said Les McMackin, Foundation chief operations and marketing officer. “We also saw the potential if some strategic capital was deployed in the property what we think the property is capable of delivering.”

That understanding of the market and the casino’s capabilities was possible, McMackin said, because many of the company’s employees had been involved with DiamondJacks since the late 1990s, when it was the Isle of Capri.

“Some of us were with the Isle Corporation, so we had been within the Vicksburg market since 1996, managing this property,” he said.

He said the connection with the casino was renewed in 2013, when creditors involved with bankruptcy proceedings filed by Legends Gaming hired Foundation as a consultant. In 2014, Foundation took over managing the casino. It acquired DiamondJacks October 29. The cost of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

“We saw an opportunity that if we were able to put a different capital structure in place, and deploy some fresh capital here, the results would be far better,” McMackin said.

“We also think there is a great core group of team members here who have been with the property a long time, so they know how to operate in the market, and they know how to provide great guest service. They were doing it in an environment that sorely needed capital infusion that Legends was unable to provide from what they evolved into.”

He declined to discuss how much the company has invested in the renovation project.

“We’re trying to do what we believe is very impactful for customers, and (we’re) kind of in the first phase of what we’re doing,” he said. “We obviously have got a lot of plans, and as anybody gets into a renovation project, you begin to uncover what you didn’t plan on. “We’re trying to be the most impactful with this first phase and attack things that will make things better for our guests and our team members.”

He said the decision to change the casino’s name to WaterView was developed during the process of planning the update for the property and the changes involved.

“It just seemed a natural fit for us to go through and give it a new name, based in the colors we were trying to introduce and the concepts we were trying to put in place here, and to complete the transformation and allow the rebirth of the property,” he said.

“We’re basically going to launch the new brand and establish it in the market and try and position it in a favorable view of the customers that come into the market, so we can draw a fair amount (of people) and retain and redevelop relationships with customers who have strayed over the years because of the inability of the property to deploy the necessary capital.”