The sound of hammering has replaced the ring of guests calling to make reservations at the former Ramada Inn Hilltop.

New owners recently began working to transform the hotel and add a riverboat casino below.

Emerald Star Casino-Natchez, LLC, which bought the hotel late last year, has gutted the hotel’s former bar and restaurant and plan to remodel the building.

“We will tear up the floor and replace it, then reframe the inside,” carpenter Steven Kecki said Wednesday. “We’re going to spiff it up some.”

The hanging electrical wires and stacks of old mattresses will eventually be replaced by a new restaurant.

“It’s just getting a facelift,” Kecki said.

Emerald Star President Bill Bayba said Wednesday 100 rooms will be demolished and rebuilt from scratch soon.

“The look of the hotel will change dramatically,” Bayba said.

“It will look completely different than it does now.”

The low, squat buildings will be replaced with peaked roofs and stucco.

“I think the community will be very pleased with the end product,” he said.

The hotel construction should take roughly seven months, and should be completed by the end of the year. The new hotel will have 130 rooms and new convention space.

“We’re probably looking at the first of the year for opening the casino,” Bayba said.

The plan is for the casino and hotel, which will employ roughly 400 people combined, to open at roughly the same time.

The casino will have roughly 850 slot machines, 26 table games and will include a buffet, a restaurant and a gift shop.

While some have raised questions of if Natchez can support two casinos, Bayba said he isn’t worried.

“We’ve done a lot of feasibility work there, and we’re very confident with the numbers we have seen,” he said.

“(The market) can definitely support two casinos.”