Another Margaritaville Means Money to Buffet

Apparently there’s no wasting away in Margaritaville any more, there’s just making money, money and more money!

The Jimmy Buffet classic song which went to number 8 on the billboard Hot 100 charts when it was released in 1977 has its name so far on 27 tourists around the world including the latest one in Atlantic City which Governor Christie cut the ribbon on Thursday.

The newest Margaritaville is a $35 million, 40,000-square-foot complex that houses two restaurants, multiple bars, a beach-themed casino, and several breezy, laid-back retail stores—all tucked away in a larger gambling mecca called Resorts.

Margaritaville Enterprises, founded in 2006 and based in Orlando, sells everything from beachwear to furniture and also oversees at least one Caribbean island resort, two American resorts, and four casinos. You can buy Margaritaville rum and combine it with a Margaritaville drink mixer in your very own Margaritaville blender that costs $349.99. According to the Orlando Business Journal, the company brought in at least $100 million in revenue in 2007. As a private company, Margaritaville doesn’t release information about its holdings, but by all accounts it has only expanded since then.

Margaritaville is so big that if you want to check Buffett’s tour dates, there’s no JimmyBuffett.com—there’s only Margaritaville.com, where his music career and the rest of his empire are seamlessly melded into one site.

Using this kind of a business model, could other songs be as lucrative? How about a chain of Heartbreak Hotels?