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Nashville Margaritaville Opening in Two Weeks

November 9th, 2010


The latest Margaritaville Cafe will open its door on Monday, November 22nd in downtown Nashville.

The $10 million restaurant, located at 322 Broadway, will open at 11 am for lunch after a 10 am ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring project principals and local community leaders.

“Buffett wants to make music a big part of the venue here, and the café is going to appeal to the young crowd, locals and visitors to our city,” said Mark Bloom, a principle in the project. “Besides the food and special drinks synonymous with Margaritaville, the music will be a special attraction.”

At street level there will be a restaurant, bar and three live-music stages. The second floor will house another bar, additional restaurant seating, and a “small concert hall with state-of-the-art lighting and sound system,” Bloom said.

Total seating capacity is 350, with about 200 in the concert hall upstairs.

Live music will be featured daily. The café will be open from 11 a.m.-3 a.m. seven days a week, Bloom said, and the entertainment will include “a nightly showcase of newcomers.”

Jimmy Buffett always plays a show at newly-opened Margaritavilles, but it can be as much as two months after it opens and is often times a surprise.


Tagged in Business Empire, Margaritaville Cafes

Margaritaville Coming to Chicago’s Navy Pier

October 20th, 2010


Margaritaville is coming to the Windy City. Jimmy Buffett will open a Margaritaville Cafe at the famed Navy Pier in downtown Chicago after beating out 10 other bidders:

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the pier, approved the lease Wednesday morning.

“So, we’ll have the Caribbean in February on Navy Pier,” said David Mosena, board chairman. The authority is hoping the restaurant and entertainment venue will serve as an attendance magnet year-round.

Buffett, in a prepared statement, expressed his excitement for the new venue, targeted to open next spring.

“From my earliest days in the city, playing the Quiet Knight on Belmont, to the pinnacle of live performances to me, singing in front of the ivy wall at Wrigley Field, I have had a long and wonderful history and affection for the people, the music, the art and the food of the Windy City. I have always thought of Chicago as a beach town, a pretty big one, but still a beach town.”

Terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Read more about Jimmy’s Margaritaville Cafe empire here.

Update – The restaurant is expected to open next Spring in the space currently occupied by Charlie’s Ale House.


Tagged in Business Empire, Margaritaville Cafes

Nashville Margaritaville Job Fair

October 15th, 2010


The new Margaritaville Nashville is hosting a job fair today and tomorrow in downtown Nashville at the Holiday Inn Express:


Tagged in Business Empire, Margaritaville Cafes

Margaritaville Casino in Atlantic City now “Out of the Picture”

September 10th, 2010


There’s another fresh round of back-and-forth between Coastal Development (a partnership with Jimmy Buffett) and Trump Entertainment Resorts over the Trump Marina Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. This time it appears the deal is off for good.

“Coastal made a written offer to purchase the Marina on Aug. 23, 2010, and was prepared to place half of the purchase price in escrow,” Coastal Chairman Richard T. Fields said. “The company never responded. . . . Last week, we formally withdrew our offer.”

“We are now officially out of the picture,” Fields added, “and will not be used in the press as a stalking horse in a deceptive process.”

The original plan back in 2008 was to purchase the resort for approximately 315 million dollars and turn it into a Margaritaville-themed casino and resort. The deal was on and then off multiple times, eventually culminating in Coastal Development suing Trump in 2009 over the deal. The lawsuit is apparently still ongoing.

The August 23rd offer by Coastal that went unanswered was reportedly for less than $75 million… a freefall from the original $315 million offer and later offer of $270 million.

Trump Entertainment CEO Mark Juliano believes a deal can still be done with Coastal, noting that it “would make the fourth time that [Coastal has] been out.”

Read more in today’s Philly Inquirer and Press of Atlantic City.


Tagged in Business Empire, Casinos

Nashville Margaritaville to Open Before Christmas

September 6th, 2010


Jimmy Buffett’s latest Margaritaville Cafe is on schedule to open before Christmas:

A $10 million remodeling project on Lower Broadway to house Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Cafe continues on schedule so the beach-themed restaurant and live-music venue can open by Christmas, the building’s owners say.

Both floors of the century-old building at 322 Broadway are being prepared for a variety of bars, dining areas and performance stages. Interior framing was under way as the owners toured the site with the architects and general contractor late last week.

“A lot of people are excited this building is coming to life again,” said Mark Bloom, a principal in the Corner Partnership, which owns the building and is paying for the renovations.

Once a Planet Hollywood restaurant and bar, the Broadway location most recently housed the Global Cafe — an Internet cafe — but has been vacant for more than a year now.

The biggest challenge in completing the Buffett project is working inside a historic building, where crews have found surprises behind walls, under the floors and in the ceilings, said project architect Sara Atherton.

“Opening the walls, we’ve found all kinds of structural changes that have been made over the years,” she said.

That includes steel reinforcements for the original plaster walls, as well as ornate windows facing Broadway on the second floor that had been covered from the inside for years.

The two rows of windows have now been uncovered, and that allow lots of light into a room that had been “dark and dank” before, Atherton said.

At street level, there will be a restaurant, three bars and two areas for live music, including a small stage in the back. On the second floor will be two more bars, additional restaurant space, a small concert hall with seating for about 200, and a separate party room, Bloom said.

Visit the official site for the new location at http://www.margaritavillenashville.com.


Tagged in Business Empire, Margaritaville Cafes