Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Joe Greff with Bear Stearns.
Dan Lee
Hi, Joe.
Joe Greff - Bear Stearns
Dan, can you give us an update on Sugarcane Bay? I know you talked it about a couple of different times during your prepared comments. I guess maybe just give us an update there, the priority of that versus Baton Rouge. Then, I have a couple of follow-ups.
Dan Lee
Well, it's not an either/or. Sugarcane Bay is largely designed. We are waiting. The Coast Guard has taken a position, they're no longer going to certify boats, and they'd rather spend their resources certifying boats that really go somewhere. They don't want to certify casino boats. And the Louisiana law has said that the Coast Guard had to certify the boats. So, the law is being changed to allow them to use a private company; I think it's called the American Bureau of Shipping, to certify the boats. That's in progress. If it hasn't happen already, it's close to happening.
So, we have told Louisiana we need to know what qualifies as a boat before we can finish the plans and get underway. So, we are working with the gaming commission to resolve that, hope to resolve it the next couple of months. Then frankly, the plans are mostly done. We just have to figure out, does the -- do the walls and the ceiling of the casino have to float, or can those be on land and only float boats, which is basically the walls and ceiling at L'Auberge float, but in St. Louis the walls and the ceiling don't float, only the floor floats, which is less expensive and more customer friendly. So we're trying to resolve that issue. We've lined up a contractor. They're going through the plans to try to confirm the cost that the cost estimates we have, so they can build this on budget.
We intend to use Manhattan Construction in Lake Charles that we used for L'Auberge and had a very good experience with them. But this time around we want to make sure we have a guaranteed maximum price. So we're working with the same contractor but in a slightly different form, whereas in River City we are allowed to bid to five contractors.
So, in effect, Sugarcane Bay is largely an expansion of L'Auberge. It's right next door, it will be connected, it will be managed by the same management team and so on. So we just finished the $60 million expansion. We're kind of catching our breath, making sure the plans conform with Louisiana law and hopefully get underway on it later this year.
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