In its heyday the Broadwater Beach Resort hosted movie stars, leading politicians, and top business figures as well as people on vacation.

In 2020 a new joint venture involving the Universal Music Group was formed to build a music-central entertainment and casino resort at the site.

The Broadwater Beach Hotel was built in 1938 by investors seeking to gain the business of gamblers coming to casinos along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

[2] He openly ran a casino within the hotel, as even though it was nominally illegal at the time,[2] gambling was part of the social and economic fabric of Biloxi.

[2] Following his death in 1959,[3] his widow Dorothy Brown, who was a noted New Orleans philanthropist,[4] renovated the property for a more modern look, including a wide arched canopy in the front.

[3] In the early 1960s, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was emerging as a prime alternative to Florida as a southern vacation destination, and the Broadwater Beach Resort was considered the pacesetter for the area.

[3] Hosting movie stars, leading politicians, and top business figures, as well as people on vacation,[11] it became the Gulf Coast's flagship resort.

[12] But the resort rebounded and by 1977 it was described by the New York Times as a "bustling colony of rooms, cottages, restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, and its own marina.

"[15] Conferences were held there,[16][17][18] and the Broadwater Beach Hotel was the setting for a fictional regional sales meeting in the 1982 Frederick Barthelme short story "Box Step".

[21] President Casinos was saddled with corporate debt, however, and a planned new $2 billion resort at the site, to be called Destination Broadwater, never materialized.

[3] Less than a month later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore the casino barge from its moorings and washed it ashore ½ mile west of the Broadwater Resort Marina.

[33] By September 2007, the Broadwater developers said they were close to signing with an international entertainment corporation to begin the work, and the Biloxi Planning Commission granted them an 18-month extension.

[34] But by October 2008, the global financial crisis had prevented anything from happening, and the Mississippi Gaming Commission gave an indefinite extension to the Broadwater site approval.

[36] In October 2020, a new joint venture between the Universal Music Group and Dakia U-Ventures was formed to create music-themed entertainment luxury resorts.