KENNER, La. (WGNO) — Tuesday morning, Boyd Gaming hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction for a new Treasure Chest Casino.

“This is really a chance to take Treasure Chest to another level,” Boyd Gaming Vice President of Corporate Communications David Strow said.

The facility will be a 47,000-square-foot casino with several new restaurants and bars and nearly 10,000 square feet of convention and meeting spaces available. Along with that, there will be a FanDuel Sportsbook and parking adjacent to the casino entrance.

“That really has been something customers told us for a long time, ‘why can’t we park at the door?’ Now we can offer that,” Strow said.

The plan to make Kenner an entertainment destination works hand-in-hand with the Williams Boulevard boat launch project.

“The sand silts in the launch because of the wave action that comes directly into the launch,” District 4 Councilman Dominick Impastato said. “So, what is happening as a result of that wave action, not just has the ground silted in and the water made it inoperable as a boat launch but the ramps and the docks have all become in disrepair.”

That’s why they’re working to revamp the launch for recreational and commercial use.

“Commercial fisherman, shrimpers, crabbers,” Impastato said. “This is a huge resource for commercial crabbers to come to be able to get their product and then sell it back into the seafood market.”

The boat launch project is expected to be complete by next summer and the casino should be open to the public by Christmas 2023.