City officials said they are waiting for Portofino Resort LLC representatives to file applications with Vicksburg’s Community Development Department for a special exception to build a permanent casino building on land by the Portofino Hotel.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said Thursday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a 408 floodwall permit application from the city that was filed in October to allow Portofino to install a new elevated walkway for the proposed casino, which papers filed with the Mississippi Gaming Commission indicate will be built on land near the hotel.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said when the application was made the city was filing the papers because it operates the floodwall that runs along the Mississippi River and crosses the Portofino property. The property is near the site of the former Grand Station Casino gaming barge, which was removed in 2013.

She said the permit involved construction projects that affect the floodwall, and the company wanted to install pilings by the floodwall.

Approval by the Corps was required for Portofino to get its gaming license.

Zoning administrator Dalton McCarty said the company has not filed an application seeking the special exception that will clear the way for construction, adding representatives failed to meet the deadline to get the application on the commission’s April agenda.

Gaming industry attorney Michael Cavanaugh, who is listed as the lead organizer for the project, said officials with Portofino resort are working to get the information for the company’s application for the special exception, which he said just step one toward getting the company’s gaming license.

“The Corps permit was one step, and you have to get the Corps permit before you can go to the city,” he said. “We still have a number of things to do before we can get our license, but we’re getting there.”

Portofino Resort wants to build a 30,000-square-foot casino on shore at 1310 Mulberry St., the site of the former Harrah’s, Horizon and Grand Station casinos, according to legal notices and an application filed with state gaming regulators. If built, it would become the city’s fifth casino.

According to papers filed with the Mississippi Gaming Commission, Portofino’s details indicate a permanent structure on about 11.5 acres, which means the developers plan to comply with a state law passed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that allows casinos to be built up to 800 feet from water.

Harrah’s operated at the site from 1993 until 2003, when it sold its Vicksburg property to Columbia Sussex. The names on the casino and hotel changed to Horizon until the fall 2010, when Tropicana Entertainment, which was part of Columbia Sussex and operated Horizon, went bankrupt and closed the casino.

In 2011, the venue reopened as Grand Station, but closed in March 2012 amid bankruptcy.

From 1993 until the Grand Station bankruptcy, the casino was located on a barge built to look like a riverboat that was moored in the Yazoo Diversion Canal next to the hotel and surrounded by a cofferdam.

The former casino vessel was auctioned for scrap metal in April 2013 and hauled away. Portofino Hotel operates in the same structure as the previous three casino hotels, an edifice owned by Vicksburg Hotel LLC, also based in Biloxi.

Vicksburg’s four casinos are Ameristar, Lady Luck, DiamondJacks and Riverwalk, the last of which opened in 2008.