Atlantic City Development News [Archive]

xzmattzx

August 28th, 2007, 04:24 PM

Here are a couple articles that I posted in seperate threads several months ago.

The sky could be the limit – heightwise – for new Atlantic City casinos

A new casino envisioned for this gambling resort could become New Jersey's tallest building if the City Council, as expected, eases height restrictions on skyscrapers.

The council is poised to vote next week on a measure raising the limit from the current 485 feet to 800 feet on a plot of land just north of the Showboat Casino Hotel.

A building that high would be the tallest in New Jersey, topping the current champion, the 781-foot Goldman Sachs office in Jersey City.

But the likely developer said the building probably won't reach 800 feet.

"That would be very tall, and the taller you get, the more expensive it becomes to build," Revel Entertainment Chairman and CEO Kevin DeSanctis told The Press of Atlantic City for Thursday's newspaper. But he said the company wants a visually stunning, landmark structure.

Now that Bader Field, the historic airport near the downtown area, has closed, officials say previous restrictions on how high buildings can be are no longer needed.

Last year, the city agreed to raise the height restriction for much of the Marina district to 560 feet to accommodate expansion of Harrah's Atlantic City Casino. The nearby Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is Atlantic City's tallest, at 480 feet.

City planning director Bill Crane said he expects more tall buildings to rise along the Boardwalk because there is little room to expand horizontally. The current height limit for most of the Boardwalk casino zone is 385 feet.

"Now that Bader Field's closed, no pun intended, the sky's the limit," he said.

The Revel redevelopment area also includes the city-owned Garden Pier. Revel and the city have been talking since last fall about buying and rebuilding the pier, which was built in 1912 and once housed one of the resort's largest ballrooms.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/NEWS/70216006

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N.J. casinos seeing effect of Pa. competition
With first two Phila.-area slots parlors open, revenues take a dip

ATLANTIC CITY -- Ever since casino gambling began here in 1978, revenue at the gambling halls has been on a one-way trip -- straight up.

But for the first time, annual revenue from Atlantic City's casinos could decline in 2007. The industry faces increased competition from slot machines in neighboring states, new restrictions on smoking and the closing of one casino.

The first monthly revenue figures of the new year were down, raising concern that it could be the start of a yearlong trend.

If revenue does go down, it could have negative consequences for the industry, its customers and the state of New Jersey, which relies on casino taxes.

"There will be an impact, no doubt," said Carlos Tolosa, eastern division president for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. "The Pennsylvania slots parlors will certainly cause competition. In the past, people just came to Atlantic City. That's the part that always scares you. Atlantic City relies on high-frequency customers."

Already, Pennsylvania slots parlors are cutting into Atlantic City's pie. Figures for January, when Atlantic City went head-to-head with two new Philadelphia-area slots parlors, had New Jersey casino executives reaching for the antacid tablets. Overall revenue at Atlantic City casinos declined 2.9 percent compared with a year ago, but the decline in slots revenue was even sharper at 7.2 percent.

Philadelphia Park, in Bensalem Township, about 20 miles north of Philadelphia, opened Dec. 19. Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack opened Jan. 22. Executives of those gambling halls said they targeted gamblers who otherwise would have gone to Atlantic City.

On the Atlantic City Expressway, among the billboards featuring local entertainers and buffet deals, one billboard for Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton beckons departing drivers to "come play with us" next time.

But what's bad for the casinos may be good for their customers. Many observers say they expect casinos to be even more aggressive about offering incentives such as free rooms or show tickets to keep players coming.

Also, a revenue dip may only accelerate a movement already well under way here: Making sure there's a lot more to do in Atlantic City than just gamble.

"Clearly, Atlantic City recognizes that for its overall revenue to grow, it has to become less gaming-centric," said Joseph Weinert, vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a casino consulting firm. "A majority of Atlantic City's customers will be able to play slots somewhere closer to home. Atlantic City has to give them a compelling reason to drive farther, stay longer and spend more."

Weinert said he expects overall 2007 revenues to be about flat. But Frank Fantini, publisher of The Gaming Morning Report, says a decline of as much as 5 percent is possible.

In 2006, Atlantic City's revenues came in at $5.2 billion, up 4 percent from the year before.

The closing in November of The Sands Casino and Hotel is also expected to hurt the bottom line.

"Some of that money will flow to other casinos, but some of it won't be recovered until another property takes its place," Fantini said. There are now 11 Atlantic City casinos, down from 12 last year.

Smoking restrictions are another wild card. As of April 15, casinos must designate at least 75 percent of their gambling floors as smoke-free. The industry is worried about losing smoking patrons, as well as the millions it will cost to wall off smoking areas and install ventilation systems.

The state has an interest in keeping casino revenues flowing as well. The casinos pay 8 percent tax on their gross revenues, and pay another 1.25 percent toward projects approved by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. Last year, that worked out to $417.5 million in revenue taxes, and $65.2 million in reinvestment obligations.

http://vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BL&Date=20070220&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=702200323&Ref=AR&Profile=1003
Gamblers play the slots at Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton last summer. Along with the new competition from Philadelphia-area slots casinos, the Delaware racino has started billboard advertising on the Atlantic City Expressway.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070220/BUSINESS/702200323/1003

xzmattzx

September 14th, 2007, 08:14 PM

It looks like Atlantic City will get a new tallest building.

Proposed A.C. casino would be city's tallest building

ATLANTIC CITY – A new casino to be built by Revel Entertainment Group will feature two hotel towers with a total of 3,800 rooms, and become the tallest building in the city.

The company, which had already announced its intention to build in Atlantic City, filed plans last week with the state and city.

The project, which should be ready by 2011, is to be built on 20 acres just north of the Showboat Casino-Hotel.

"We look forward to continuing our work with local and state authorities and gaming regulators to develop a distinctive beachfront casino entertainment resort that will help define the future of Atlantic City while creating jobs, tax revenues and other sustainable economic benefits for the region,'' said Kevin DeSanctis, the company's chairman and CEO.

Revel applied last week for a Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and filed a site plan application with Atlantic City's planning board.

The new casino site will be bordered by Oriental, New Jersey and Metropolitan avenues, and will include more than 1,000 feet of Boardwalk frontage.

Revel has not yet named the new casino, which will offer 150,000 square feet of casino space, and 500,000 square feet of dining, retail and entertainment space.

It will have more hotel rooms than any other casino in Atlantic City.

Revel is partnered with investment firm Morgan Stanley to build the new casino, which is expected to cost about $2 billion.

And in a further nod to Atlantic City's race to re-create the Las Vegas experience in New Jersey, the new casino is expected to include Atlantic City's first casino wedding chapel.

Revel's project is one of two new casinos planned to open on the Atlantic City beachfront in 2011. Pinnacle Entertainment is demolishing the former Sands Casino Hotel and plans to open its own $1.5 billion casino around the same time as Revel's opens.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/NEWS/70913053

xzmattzx

October 8th, 2007, 01:55 AM

Here's an article from a while ago that I came across today.

Hilton's plans reflect a larger-scale Atlantic City
Casinos in the resort are becoming taller, roomier, and much costlier to build. The Hilton hopes to expand to keep pace.

ATLANTIC CITY - Size matters in this seaside gambling mecca.
With at least four $1 billion gambling behemoths to be built in the next five years, the resort's smallest casino - the Atlantic City Hilton - has plans for a $1 billion expansion to more than double its size so it can compete in a market that has taken on a much larger scale.

"It will be a Borgata-like property," said Tony Rodio, president of the Atlantic City Hilton and Resorts casinos, referring to the golden-hued, Las Vegas-style mega-facility that redefined Atlantic City and became its top-grossing casino. "The Atlantic City Hilton is a wonderful little property that's just too small to compete with the big guys."

Rodio presented the plan to executives of Colony Capital L.L.C., which owns the Atlantic City Hilton's parent company, Resorts International Holdings Inc., late yesterday in Las Vegas.

"The meeting went well, and Colony is evaluating the project," Rodio said last night.

The Hilton owns land - along Pacific Avenue to Atlantic Avenue, and from Boston Avenue to two blocks north, heading toward the Tropicana Casino Resort - that could be used for expansion.

The casino floor would double, to about 120,000 square feet. Hilton also plans to add a 1,000-room hotel, restaurants, shops, a theater, and a 3,000-space parking garage.

The plan reflects the new climate in Atlantic City, where being small and outdated, like the former Sands Hotel Casino, can mean extinction. The Sands closed in November after it was bought by Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. of Las Vegas, which plans to build a much more substantial, $1.5 billion facility.

The Hilton was built by casino mogul Steve Wynn and opened as the Golden Nugget in 1980. Wynn sold it in 1987, and it was renamed the Atlantic City Hilton.

Rodio said the nearly 27-year-old casino had been constrained by its size and routinely had to turn hotel customers away. It last expanded a decade ago, when 300 hotel rooms were added.

The Hilton's 804 hotel rooms are the fewest among Atlantic City's 11 casinos, but its 96.4 percent occupancy rate was the highest.

"We have to turn away between 30,000 to 35,000 people a month who want to stay with us because there's nowhere to put them," Rodio said.

Gross operating profits at the Hilton increased 79 percent last year to $51.8 million.

But with the advent of slots competition in Pennsylvania in November, the restraints of the Hilton's size were beginning to show. Slot-machine revenue was down 6 percent, table-games revenue fell 10.2 percent, and total revenue decreased 7.4 percent last month compared with a year earlier, according to figures from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

The Hilton plans to add a 1,000-room hotel tower; 60,000 square feet of gambling-floor space; shops; restaurants; a 3,500-seat multipurpose room that will serve as a ballroom, convention and meeting space; and an events center for shows and concerts.

Rodio first revealed the expansion plans last Wednesday at a relicensing hearing for the Hilton before the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

The timing may be in the Hilton's favor. This month, Colony announced that one of its casinos - Resorts East Chicago - was being sold to Ameristar Casinos Inc. of Las Vegas for $675 million, some of which could help finance the Hilton's expansion.

Rodio knows he has to move fast.

At least four casinos, owned by Morgan Stanley, Pinnacle, MGM Mirage and a private investor group from Atlantic City, are expected to open here by 2012 - putting intense pressure on small casinos to expand their business.

One of the new operators - Revel Entertainment Group, L.L.C. - announced yesterday that it had selected Tishman Construction Corp. to build its $1 billion-plus casino on 20 acres on the northern end of the Boardwalk. The owner of that site is Morgan Stanley, the investment-banking firm.

The existing competition also has been expanding. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Harrah's Marina and the Trump Taj Mahal casinos are adding hotel towers. The Tropicana is negotiating to add a boutique hotel next to its property.

Plans for a new hotel at the Hilton have been discussed since Wallace Barr was head of Caesars Entertainment Inc., which formerly owned the Hilton. The hotel was sold to Colony in late 2004 when Harrah's Entertainment Inc. was acquiring Caesars Entertainment.

"It's a great idea. They have a tremendous amount of land to work with," said Barr, who at the time negotiated the land deal for the proposed Hilton expansion. "It can't continue to exist as the smallest casino in Atlantic City."

Barr reemerged from retirement last spring as part of a local investor group that wants to build a $1 billion casino next to the Hilton.

A 30-year veteran of the gambling industry, Barr said the days of building $500 million casinos with 375-foot-high hotels and 500 rooms were long gone. Building-height restrictions in Atlantic City were eased after Bader Field closed in 2006, permitting towers of up to 800 feet that can hold 2,000 to 3,000 rooms.

He also said $1 billion was now the minimum to build a casino in the city.

"The last thing we want to do is build a Bally's or a Trump Plaza from the 1970s and 1980s that will clearly not be competitive," Barr said of his proposed casino. "You have to build for what Atlantic City is today and let the rest of the world catch up."

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/5407/casino300bg6.jpg

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/7179687.html

xzmattzx

October 9th, 2007, 05:17 PM

Here's an article on the Central Pier.

Schiff plan just beginning of Boardwalk's face lift

Robert and Abraham Schiff's redevelopment plans for Central Pier would bring the "dead zone," or the sparsely traveled stretch of Boardwalk between Bally's Atlantic City and Resorts Atlantic City, to life with a high-end mix of retail, dining and entertainment.
Bob Schiff wants to gut the interior of the Central Pier and use land the Schiffs own opposite the Boardwalk, between St. James Place and Tennessee Avenue, for the project. The Schiffs want to bring national and regional tenants in a complex that would extend through South Carolina Avenue, with a bridge connecting attractions on the Boardwalk side to the multilevel pier.

The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will contribute funds from the $100 million it has dedicated to its Boardwalk improvement project and is working with the Schiffs on the planning stages.

It is part of a burst of recent effort focused on bolstering the Boardwalk's image.

This month, the Atlantic City Regional Mainland Chamber of Commerce announced the formation of a Committee for Boardwalk Excellence that includes local government and business leaders.

And this summer, the CRDA finished beautifying faded Boardwalk facades on the 1500 and 2500 blocks. It expects to start work on the 2600 and 3000 blocks later in the fall and begin fixing several street ends at the Boardwalk.
Construction was delayed when the Schiffs opposed an initial plan that would have had the CRDA paying for 80 percent of construction costs; they signed on once the agency decided to foot all of the expense. Some Boardwalk merchants were - and still are - reluctant to participate out of concern that the construction would short-change business.

In the meantime, said Thomas Meehan, director of development for the CRDA, the agency has hired a photographer to take pictures of the new facades, which can be presented to the national chains that the CRDA wants to attract.

Julie Bader of Siganos Management, which is working with Meehan on the project, said the CRDA is looking to schedule a meeting in several weeks with Boardwalk landlords that would have a leasing specialist come in and talk to owners about how to sign leases with tenants in a way that would improve the Boardwalk.

"I think one of the problems is a lot of landlords feel that a casino's going to come knocking on the door and pay them millions and millions so they don't invest anything," said Bader, property and leasing manager for Siganos, which owns property on the Boardwalk. She added, "There has to be a way that the landlord can invest the money and can improve a store and get a better tenant and not feel he's locking himself into a 10 or 20 years lease."

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/atlantic_city/story/7505839p-7403457c.html

Don Omar

October 10th, 2007, 10:15 PM

MGM Plans Huge Atlantic City Resort

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/10/business/11casino.600.jpg
A rendering of the MGM Grand Atlantic City. The property will include a 1,500-seat theater, a spa, and up to 500,000 square feet of retail space.

By GARY RIVLIN
Published: October 10, 2007
nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/business/10cnd-casino.html?ref=business)

An otherwise dismal year for the Atlantic City casino industry turned a bit brighter today when MGM Mirage, the gambling giant, announced plans to build a huge new resort hotel that will rank among the most expensive casino projects in history.

The casino hotel, to be called the MGM Grand Atlantic City, will cost $4.5 billion to $5 billion, according to the company. The current Las Vegas record holder is Wynn’s, which cost $2.7 billion and opened in 2005, though there are several casino hotel projects on the drawing boards in Las Vegas in the $4 billion to $5 billion range.

The MGM announcement comes at a time of declining gambling revenue as Atlantic City faces increased competition from slot parlors that have recently opened in Pennsylvania and New York. Through the first nine months of 2007, the city’s casinos won a combined $3.8 billion, a 5 percent drop compared with figures in the period a year earlier, according to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

“What this says is that, like us, MGM sees this decline as a temporary phenomenon,” said Michael Pollock, publisher of The Gaming Industry Observer, a trade journal based in Atlantic City. “What they’re saying with this proposal is that they see the long-term growth potential for Atlantic City as very real.”

Gordon Absher, an MGM spokesman, said the company did not look at the overall performance of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos but instead focused on the experience of a single property: the Borgata, the first billion-dollar casino in a market that still ranks as the second largest in the United States.

Despite new competition from nearby markets, the Borgata, which opened in 2003, has seen a modest rise in slot machine and table game revenue in the first nine months of 2007. MGM owns a 50 percent share of the Borgata.

“The Borgata has changed the paradigm for Atlantic City,” Mr. Absher said. “The Borgata shows that if you provide people with the right product, Atlantic City can attract the customer who has an appetite for the Las Vegas experience but doesn’t want to fly across the country to have that experience.”

The project includes three distinct hotel towers, each with its own personality. One is expected to have a “more contemporary feel,” Mr. Absher said, while a second will be more “upscale.” A third, he said, will be an all-suites tower “for high rollers or those who are willing to pay to be treated like high rollers.”

The property will also include a 1,500-seat theater, a spa, a convention center and up to 500,000 square feet of retail space.

MGM is only the most recent company to wager large sums that Atlantic City can transform itself from a low-rent gambling factory on the Jersey Shore into a world-class entertainment destination. In that view, Atlantic City moves upmarket to become a kind of Las Vegas East that lures a younger, more free-spending tourist who spends as much money on fine food, big-name performers, expensive hotel rooms and other amenities as they do gambling.

Harrah’s, for instance, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Atlantic City over the last couple of years to improve its four properties there, and Pinnacle Entertainment, which operates six casinos across the country, announced plans last year to build a $1.5 billion casino hotel in place of the Sands, which closed last year.

“For those casino companies willing to make the investment,” Mr. Pollock said, “the upside in this market is enormous.”

Don Omar

October 10th, 2007, 10:15 PM

eat your heart out Las Vegas

Taylorhoge

October 10th, 2007, 10:57 PM

bye bye Empire City Casino

xzmattzx

October 11th, 2007, 06:16 PM

Huge news for Atlantic City: MGM is going to build one of the most lavish and expensive casinos in the world.

Atlantic City to get mammoth casino
MGM to spend $5 billion for hotel, gambling and entertainment complex.

ATLANTIC CITY - MGM Mirage said yesterday that it would place a huge bet on the future of this seaside resort with the biggest casino project in Atlantic City's history: a massive 3,000-room hotel, casino and entertainment complex with a $5 billion price tag.

When MGM teamed up with Boyd Gaming Corp. four years ago to build the $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in this city's Renaissance Pointe, it redefined Atlantic City's skyline and completely altered the East Coast gaming market.

But MGM's announcement yesterday of the MGM Grand Atlantic City raises the bar considerably, and rivals or surpasses in cost the world's most expensive casino projects under construction in Las Vegas and Singapore.

And it is doing so even as the city's casinos have seen their revenues eroded by new competition from slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York. The Casino Control Commission said yesterday that revenues at the city's 11 casinos fell 10.6 percent in September, the seventh consecutive monthly decline.

The new project, on a 72-acre tract north of the Borgata, is destined to be the largest hotel and casino in Atlantic City, with three hotel towers, 3,000 rooms and suites, and the largest gaming floor, with 5,000 slot machines and 200 table games. It will be Atlantic City's tallest building.

The company's board of directors approved the plan yesterday. The new casino resort will have a construction budget of $4.5 billion to $5 billion, not including the value of the land and associated costs, according to the company. MGM, which owns some of the most prestigious casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, including the Bellagio and Mandalay Bay, is also building the $7.4 billion CityCenter mega-resort on the heart of the Strip. The project, like MGM Grand Atlantic City, features high-end retail space, a spa, entertainment venues, condominiums and hotel towers.

MGM Mirage shares lost 1 percent of their value yesterday, closing at $98.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares recently reached a 52-week high of $100.52.

MGM, as co-owner of the Borgata, has made no secret of its desire to eventually build on the land next to the casino, considered one of the most precious pieces of remaining undeveloped property in Atlantic City.

MGM chairman and chief executive officer Terry Lanni said in an interview last month that his company planned to seek the necessary environmental permits to build there by early next year.

"Our company has carefully considered the possibilities for our landholdings in Atlantic City," Lanni said in a statement issued yesterday. "We believe the success at Borgata demonstrates the eagerness for further evolution of the nation's second-largest gaming market."

The Borgata, Atlantic City's top-grossing casino, will open a $400 million hotel tower next year. Lanni said he wanted to continue to build on offering high-end amenities to the resort as slots competition from Pennsylvania and New York intensifies.

Lanni said some of his competitors in Atlantic City "have not distinguished between quality product and merely a gaming house and complimentary programs. You need to create a quality product with the best retail, the best entertainment, the best condos and hotels with condos.

"If something like that is built, you rely less on giving things away," he said. "People are willing to pay for quality."

Lanni said the Bellagio - one of MGM's premiere casinos - gets about 75 percent of its revenue from nongaming attractions.

Groundbreaking for MGM Grand Atlantic City is expected sometime in 2008, with a 2012 anticipated opening. MGM plans to build on about 60 acres of the site, setting 12 aside for future development, which may include a residential component.

Two other major casinos are being built on the Atlantic City Boardwalk: a $2 billion casino by Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley next to the Showboat, and a $1.5 billion casino on the site of the former Sands Casino Hotel by Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., of Las Vegas. Both companies are also aiming for 2012 openings, which will bring the number of Atlantic City casinos to 14, including the MGM project.

Former Caesars Entertainment Inc. chief executive officer Wallace Barr is also considering building a boutique casino on the southern end of the Boardwalk with a group of local investors.

Ken Rosevear, president and CEO of MGM Mirage development, who was behind New York New York in Las Vegas and MGM Grand Macao in South China, said MGM Grand Atlantic City will exceed anything he has done so far. One dramatic feature: an 85,000-square-foot spa suspended by, and connecting, the three towers - 450 feet above the ground.

"The concept is, it will be so compelling that it will be a must-see with all the competition out there," he said.

Anna King of Northeast Philadelphia, who frequents Atlantic City on weekends, welcomed the news.

"It can only help Atlantic City," King, 72, said while behind a slots machine at Harrah's Chester Casino & Racetrack yesterday. "These places have hurt them, so they have to do what they can to keep my business."

http://media.philly.com/images/20071011_inq_mirage11z-a.JPG
The MGM Grand Atlantic City in an artist's rendering. Its hotel will have 3,000 rooms.

MGM Grand

Details of the proposed casino hotel in Atlantic City:

Groundbreaking: 2008.

Opening: 2012.

Construction cost: $4.5 billion to $5 billion.

Acres: 60, of a 72-acre site.

Buildings: Three towers.

Rooms: More than 3,000.

Slot machines: 5,000.

Gaming tables: 200.

Theater: 1,500 seats.

Retail space: 500,000 square feet.

Hotel rooms in Atlantic City now: 14,517.

Hotel rooms in Las Vegas: 130,000.

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20071011_Atlantic_City_to_get_mammoth_casino.html

Don Omar

October 12th, 2007, 02:48 AM

sorry about the post

xzmattzx

October 15th, 2007, 07:42 PM

sorry about the post

No big deal, I simply merged your post in with this thread. Hopefully there's increased interest and activity for Atlantic City.

xzmattzx

November 26th, 2007, 04:20 PM

Another proposal in Atlantic City. The condo craze hasn't really hit A.C. from what I've heard, so this might be the start of residential living on the Boardwalk.

Staying in A.C. Without the Games

As Atlantic City's casinos face increased competition, Boardwalk real estate investors are proposing sites for non-gambling high-rise projects they say will make the resort more appealing to wealthy second-home owners and vacationers.
"There's at least four tower projects along the Boardwalk today that aren't casinos," said architect Thomas J. Sykes, principal at SOSH Architects, which counts a majority of the resort's casinos among its past clients.

Promoters and their Boardwalk sites, in various stages of state and city approval, include:

Brielle attorney Jim Maggs, at Maine Avenue near Absecon Inlet.

Longport restaurateur and Boardwalk landlord George Sigonis, at Texas Avenue amid casino row.

Horsham-based residential developer Bruce E. Toll, at Florida Avenue a block north. (Toll is chairman of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer).

Philadelphia developer Christopher DiGeorge and his partner, Thomas Stenger, former chief risk officer at GMAC Residential Capital L.P., at New York Avenue next to the planned Pinnacle casino site.

These projects have yet to dig down to hard sand. "They're all watching each other and waiting till someone puts a hole in the ground," Sykes said in his Atlantic Avenue office last week.

Proponents say Atlantic City is so underdeveloped that it can grow despite a national real estate recession. The projects have not yet reached the right balance of hope and caution, fear and greed, bad news and good.

The bad news: The national decline in residential real estate. The Wall Street credit crunch that has bankers demanding more equity for loans on speculative projects. A city government distracted by Mayor Bob Levy's resignation. Competition from Pennsylvania's new gambling halls.

The good news: The giant Revel and Pinnacle casino projects. The new, expensive retail stores at the Caesar's pier and other recent projects. The lifting of the ban on tall buildings, now that the Bader Field airport has closed. The promise of tax reassessment and development tax breaks. And competition from Pennsylvania's new gambling halls.

"I'm happy about Pennsylvania gambling," said architect Sykes. "It takes away the bus crowd and forces us to reinvest."

DiGeorge, a lawyer who was formerly a commercial real estate lender with PNC and First Republic Banks, was an early investor in the 1990s redevelopment of Northern Liberties, Center City's Schuylkill waterfront, Chinatown, and developer Carl Dranoff's Symphony House on South Broad Street.

He shifted his focus to Atlantic City as Philadelphia condo-building grew more crowded after 2003, acquiring an option on the lot where he and Stenger are proposing a $300 million, 50-story condo-hotel, full of restaurants, indoor pools and cabana units, tentatively called the Prasada (Sanskrit for "grace").

DiGeorge said his group could build the building, or make a deal with one of the big hotel chains nibbling at the city's likely construction sites.

He and the other Boardwalk-site promoters say they need to attract an older, richer crowd than the youngish party set that downtown developers expect their colleague Curtis Bashaw will attract in his redevelopment of the former Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn hotels in Atlantic City's Chelsea neighborhood. Bashaw is a grandson of one of the Shore's more colorful 20th-century personalities, the late Cape May hotel owner and religious broadcaster Carl McIntyre.

DiGeorge is betting the city "has reached a tipping point. The busloads of seniors aren't going there like they were. It can't just be about the casinos anymore. This market needs the kind of destination hotels you see in South Beach and other successful high-end markets."

"The real challenge: Is Atlantic City now a second-home market?" asks lawyer Jack Placker of Fox Rothschild L.L.P.

"We need midweek traffic," Placker said. "Who's staying at your place on a Tuesday night in February? Somebody has to take the lead and develop that market."

Placker and his developer-clients speculate over what will spark that movement. Successful financing for any of the tower projects? The intervention of a major hotel chain? A long-rumored casino-based project by Steve Wynn? Some other sugar daddy investor stepping forward, from Dubai, Shanghai, Mumbai, or the big private-equity funds?

Builders are also waiting for the next city administration to complete the downtown tax-abatement program. "Or else you could be paying $16,000 a unit - maybe $30,000 without a tax reassessment," Placker said.

"Nobody's going to build without the abatement," said developer Toll. "We're waiting for the city tax reassessment, too."

Placker, a city native, former lifeguard and regular Atlantic surfer, wishes that, nearly 30 years after the state legalized Atlantic City casinos, the city's business leaders would go further in embracing high-stakes bets on their common future.

"When Borgata first came in, people were laughing, saying, 'These people are from Vegas, they'll fail,' " he recalled. The Borgata, he noted, is now the city's highest-volume casino, and one of the few still growing.

At least one Philadelphia real estate watcher says the casino city's recent efforts to expand its appeal have already made a difference.

John Gattuso, head of Philadelphia operations at Liberty Property Trust in Malvern, says he has grown used to taking his wife and 7-year-old daughter to Atlantic City for shopping, dinner and beach visits.

"Atlantic City's a pretty dynamic place right now," Gattuso said from his job supervising the construction of the new Comcast tower, Philadelphia's tallest building. "You're finally starting to see some places that go beyond gambling."

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/4042/20071125inqdigeorge25c7fr6.jpg
The proposed Prasada would rise 50 stories above Atlantic City. It is one of four Boardwalk projects that are not casinos. Some developers are awaiting a tax-abatement program.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/1616/20071125inqdigeorge25a7yy0.jpg
Developers Thomas Stenger (left) and Christopher DiGeorge want to build a 50-story hotel-condominium in Atlantic City. Their $300 millionproposal, tentatively called the Prasada, also calls for restaurants, indoor pools and cabana units at the Boardwalk site - but no casinos.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/11800572.html

Jayayess1190

December 15th, 2007, 05:11 AM

http://www.acweekly.com/view.php?id=7762

phillybud

December 29th, 2007, 10:31 PM

Exciting news from Atlantic City ... I especially like the Hilton project. My question is ... are these projects a done deal? Or just proposals?

xzmattzx

January 7th, 2008, 07:28 AM

A grand blueprint for casino
Ken Rosevear's next project, the MGM Grand Atlantic City Casino, could be his most ambitious yet.

LAS VEGAS - Ken Rosevear has spanned the globe in his many searches for the next casino hot spot.
And when he finds such a spot, MGM Mirage's president of development likes to go over the top. Way over the top.

"It's not just about building them and they will come," Rosevear said. "You have to build them beyond expectation."

He has developed 29 casinos worldwide. Among his credits: New York New York in Las Vegas, Monte Casino in Johannesburg, South Africa, and MGM Grand Macao in South China.

His next project, on a 72-acre parcel in Atlantic City's Marina District - the $5 billion MGM Grand Atlantic City Casino - could be his most ambitious.

"It must be a postcard," Rosevear said during a recent interview inside an executive conference room at the MGM-owned Bellagio that was papered with renderings of his new Atlantic City extravaganza.

His goal: "To make an iconic building that will be recognized as the new skyline of Atlantic City," he said.

For the first time publicly, Rosevear went into detail about what $5 billion affords.

He said the Atlantic City casino is on a similar scale with MGM's $7.8 billion CityCenter complex, which is under construction on the Las Vegas Strip, not too far from Rosevear's Bellagio office.

MGM Grand Atlantic City will be Y-shaped - like the Mirage, Mandalay Bay and Monte Carlo casinos in Las Vegas - a shape most noticeable in an aerial view.

It will incorporate design features of other Rosevear-developed casinos. For instance, the casino will have a circular floor plan - like his New York New York casino - to keep foot traffic moving.

The golden hues of the three towers will be graduated, the bands of color narrowing as they go up, "as if disappearing into the sky," Rosevear said. Just like the MGM Grand Macao.

But unique to MGM Grand Atlantic City will be a spa rising 450 feet above the ground that links all three towers. Rosevear said such a design "will allow people to walk to the spa directly from the towers." The spa will be two levels with a 360-degree view.

"The idea is to make MGM Grand Atlantic City three times bigger and make it taller, with a combination of permanent and moving shows . . . so that it's an ever-changing, must-see spectacle," he said. "To take it to a new level."

The opulence of MGM Grand Atlantic City and CityCenter speaks to the continuing strength of the casino industry and the unabated national and international spending sprees among some major U.S. gaming companies despite a gloomy economy.

Casino companies that were not acquired by private-equity firms in leveraged buyouts and had their balance sheets burdened with large amounts of debt "have a lot of capacity to develop in good markets where they find opportunity," said Andrew Zarnett of Deutsche Bank AG. "They are able to do $5-billion-type developments at the same time the economy is contracting or getting weaker."

Much of the cash for this came from foreign capital, which flooded into the United States because of the dollar's weakness, noted Adam Steinberg, a gaming analyst with Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., of New York. The Bloomberg Gaming Industry Index, which measures the performance of casino company stocks, showed they gained nearly 7 percent in 2007, despite a steep November swoon. The S&P 500 index gained 3.5 percent for the year.

MGM Mirage is a major recipient of foreign investment. Dubai World - a holding company for the Persian Gulf state of Dubai that last year acquired department store Barneys New York Inc. from Jones Apparel Group Inc., of Bristol, Bucks County, for $825 million - is investing more than $5 billion in MGM Mirage.

In October, Dubai World acquired about $1.2 billion of MGM stock; in November, it paid $2.7 billion for a 50 percent stake in the CityCenter project; and in December, it acquired an additional five million shares of MGM stock for $424 million. And it plans to buy more.

The deal removed more than $3 billion in debt from MGM's books and will enable MGM to fully finance the $5 billion Atlantic City casino, which was announced Oct. 11, and forge ahead on other projects internationally, said chief financial officer Dan D'Arrigo.

"The deal really freed up our balance sheet to allow us to move forward in Atlantic City sooner than we would have been able to before," he said.

At least two more super casinos will be built in Atlantic City during the same time as the MGM casino.

Revel Entertainment Group L.L.C. is building a $2 billion casino on the Boardwalk, and Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., of Las Vegas, is developing a $1.5 billion one on the site of the former Sands Casino Hotel. Like MGM, each is targeting a 2012 opening. A fourth casino, by a private-investor group, has been proposed for the Boardwalk's southern end.

"The days of putting up boring-looking concrete buildings with big signs with big red letters are over," said David G. Schwartz, author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling and director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "People want the whole fantasy of gambling in a fantasy casino that does not look like an office building. They want to be in a high-class casino."

There is also another driving force.

"The new destinations in Atlantic City, as well as in Las Vegas, have to rise to a new level to attract a broad range of adults who are looking for a new experience," said Michael Pollock, publisher of Gaming Industry Observer and managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group L.L.C., of Linwood, N.J. "It's essentially the way to succeed in the market now."

That is Rosevear's game plan. He enlisted world-renown architect Kohn Pedersen Fox to carry out his vision. He described the new casino as being for everybody.

"This is a very large casino," Rosevear said. "It will be among the largest in the country, so you can't be too narrow in your demographic. That's why I've broken the casino into different areas."

One will be off the Race and Sports Book area; another will be more of a daytime casino; and a third section will feature entertainment with a nightclub.

The casino will have an indoor and outdoor pool, upscale retail and restaurants. The tallest tower - 800 feet - will be reserved strictly for V.I.P. guests and will be among the tallest buildings in New Jersey.

Rosevear has been making regular trips to Atlantic City since 1995, when he joined MGM from the former Caesars Entertainment Inc., and when MGM began assembling the 72-acre parcel.

He has 60 acres to work with initially. He said future expansion on the remaining 12 acres could be for residential, another hotel, condos, an entertainment arena, or more retail.

Gambling mogul Steve Wynn partnered with Boyd Gaming Corp., of Las Vegas, in May 1996 to develop the Borgata, near Harrah's and Trump Marina casinos, all in the Marina District. During the predevelopment phase, MGM bought Wynn's Mirage Resorts Inc. in May 2000, and MGM Mirage became Boyd's partner on the project. Instead of building a $750 million casino with 1,200 hotel rooms, they decided on a $1.1 billion Las Vegas-style mega-casino with 2,000 rooms.

"Great developers in the world have to take a little bit of a leap of faith that if they do something so spectacular, the market will respond," Rosevear said.

It clearly did. The vertical, golden-hued Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa debuted in July 2003 and has been Atlantic City's most profitable casino ever since.

"This clearly positions the Marina to compete favorably with other properties in Atlantic City as well as other emerging jurisdictions," said former Borgata chief executive officer Robert Boughner, on having MGM Grand move in next door. "We are delighted that it is now coming to fruition."

The fortunes of the two casinos will literally be linked. MGM Grand will be connected to the Borgata by an enclosed walkway.

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The MGM Grand Atlantic City will be built on 72 acres in the Marina District, with the Borgata and Harrah's as neighbors.

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Ken Rosevear said his goal for the new casino was "an iconic building that will be recognized as the new skyline of Atlantic City."

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MGM Grand Macao, Macao, China

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New York New York, Las Vegas

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Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20080106_A_grand_blueprint_for_casino.html

xzmattzx

January 14th, 2008, 07:06 AM

Casinos' annual win has 1st drop
Competitors and smoking ban hurt Atlantic City's gaming halls.

Last year, for the first time in the 29-year history of legalized gambling in Atlantic City, the casinos won less money than they did the year before, figures released yesterday show.

The 5.7 percent decline to $4.9 billion was hardly a surprise. For month after month in 2007, the gaming halls reported wins that were down from 2006 levels - all attributed to new competition from slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York, and new smoking restrictions on Atlantic City casino floors.

Still, the first year-to-year decline provided a marker that the gambling mecca did not want. It also deprived the people of New Jersey of about $24 million in gambling tax revenue, which the state uses to benefit senior citizens and people with disabilities.

"It is a shock - a slap on the side of the head for anyone who owns a casino in town," said Carlos Tolosa, president of the Eastern Division of Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which owns the Harrah's Marina, Showboat, Caesars and Bally's casinos in Atlantic City. Collectively, the four casinos made up 44 percent of last year's total revenue.

"This was a wake-up call for everybody that we have to continue to build nongaming attractions and convert this resort town into a destination," Tolosa said, "and that we have a long way to go."

Only three casinos had revenue increases - Caesars, at 5.1 percent; Harrah's Marina, 2.1, and the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, 1.6 percent - for the year, according to data from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The other eight casinos reported decreases ranging from 1.5 percent at Resorts to 12.1 percent at Tropicana.

Developer Donald Trump complained bitterly about the smoking ban before it took effect April 15 and predicted it would hurt Atlantic City and his three casinos there. "I told you so," he said yesterday. Pennsylvania's casinos allow smoking throughout.

"The impact of the competition from neighboring jurisdictions was obvious," said Trump, who owns the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina and Trump Plaza, "but I think the smoking ban has had as large of an impact.

"I spoke to analysts about this, and most of them said it wouldn't have an impact," Trump said. "Well, they were wrong. It's a very competitive landscape, and this put us at a disadvantage."

Monthly revenue for Atlantic City's casinos declined from a year earlier in each of the nine months from April to December.

Slots revenues fell the most, down 8.9 percent to $3.46 billion, while revenue from table games edged up 3 percent to $1.46 billion, underscoring the growing importance to Atlantic City's future of dealer-manned table games, which are not permitted in Pennsylvania.

"There is no question that I've been seeing less people," said Paul Westle of Elkins Park, a craps player who frequents the Atlantic City Hilton, which saw its annual revenue fall 7.6 percent. "The reality is that there are two parts to the week, weekends and weekdays. Both times are drawing less players, and the result is that the revenues are off."

The 71-year-old retiree said he planned a trip to Atlantic City again this weekend, but added: "I can't make the numbers look good all by myself."

Six Pennsylvania slots parlors began opening in November 2006 - including Philadelphia Park and Harrah's Chester Casino & Racetrack in the Pennsylvania suburbs.

Revenues for the six Pennsylvania slots parlors totaled $1.04 billion in 2007, of which state taxes take 55 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

The most recent addition was the state's first stand-alone casino, the $412 million Mount Airy Resort Casino in the Poconos, which debuted in mid-October.

There are 12,686 active slot machines at the six slots facilities, and more are on the way.

Penn National Gaming Inc., of Wyomissing, Pa., plans to open its 2,000-slot Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racetrack next month in Grantville, just outside Harrisburg. That densely populated area is home to many slots aficionados who traditionally travel by bus to Atlantic City.

"The success in Pennsylvania, thus far, is the result of the legislature and governor, who realized it could stop the loss of gaming revenues flowing to other states such as New Jersey," Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach said yesterday.

To help Atlantic City thrive, billions of dollars in capital investment are pouring in.

At least four billion-dollar-plus casinos are planned, three along the Boardwalk and a $5 billion mega-casino with 3,000 hotel rooms in the Marina District.

New hotel towers will open this year at the Taj Mahal, the Borgata and Harrah's Marina, adding 2,553 hotel rooms to the market.

Tolosa at Harrah's Entertainment said losing Pennsylvania as a major feeder market for slots business meant Atlantic City had to expand its reach.

"We have to work very hard to bring in incremental customers and reach out to other markets, like New York, D.C. and Baltimore," he said. After years of relying on Pennsylvania, "we have to look at other sources of revenue. No question about it."

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11E1D0872A8EDA08&p_docnum=21

xzmattzx

January 21st, 2008, 06:34 PM

An article from yesterday about the Tropicana.

Selling the 'new' Tropicana
A $1 million ad campaign is aimed at promoting the casino, which became known for bedbugs and dirty bathrooms.

ATLANTIC CITY - The bedbug image remains fresh in Laurie DiNatale's mind.
"I think of dirt, and the bedbugs totally turned me off," the 55-year-old nurse from Long Beach Island said of what she envisions whenever the Tropicana Casino & Resort is brought up.

As DiNatale played a slot machine at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa here last week, she said the Tropicana was facing "a major marketing problem" in getting people like her to come back.

"Their reputation is damaged," she said. "It will take a lot of time before I go back there."

The Tropicana launched a major advertising campaign last week to restore its image and recapture lost market share.

Print ads began appearing in the Atlantic City Weekly and other publications, and a 30-second commercial began airing on Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey television Wednesday, touting "a new experience" and "a commitment to service" at the casino.

The $1 million ad campaign, financed by the Tropicana, is to help undo the damage from months of negative publicity leading to the decision by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to deny the casino's former owner, Columbia-Sussex Corp., a license renewal on Dec. 12.

Seventy-four customer complaints dealing with issues including bedbugs in hotel rooms and filthy public bathrooms that reeked of urine were part of the evidence reviewed by the commission - and created an image that has been hard to shake.

DiNatale, who has not been at the Tropicana for a year and a half, said she had not experienced the dirt or bedbugs firsthand, but had read and heard about them in news accounts for months.

"That perception has stayed with me," she said.

Dennis Conrad, president and chief strategist with Raving Consulting Co. Inc., a gaming-consulting firm based in Reno, Nev., said the Tropicana was suffering from "a crisis of confidence."

"It's still open and still viable, but it's taken a severe whack," he said. "These ads are a good start to restore customer confidence."

Last week, 15 new Tropicana billboards went up along major thoroughfares - eight on the Atlantic City Expressway, three each on the Black Horse Pike and White Horse Pike, and one on the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Most of the billboards highlighted the casino's mega-dining-retail-and-entertainment complex, called the Quarter. Others featured coming major events and smiling, happy Tropicana employees.

The rebranding comes at a time when the casino is shopping for a buyer.

Last week, the five-member New Jersey gaming commission approved two members of Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. to serve as financial advisers to Gary Stein, the state-appointed trustee and conservator, in evaluating bids for the casino. Three former gaming executives also were brought on board as consultants.

Some of the prospective bidders include Colony Capital Acquisitions L.L.C., of Los Angeles; Cordish Co., of Baltimore; and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, of Connecticut. Colony Capital submitted the first formal written offer Jan. 9 to buy the Tropicana for $850 million. A second offer was made last Tuesday by an unidentified investment group.

The Tropicana, which is home to New Jersey's largest hotel, with 2,129 rooms, had the biggest drop in revenue among Atlantic City's 11 casinos last year, according to data from the gaming commission.

The casino's year-over-year total revenue decreased 12.1 percent from 2006. Slots revenue slipped 15.7 percent, and table-game revenue declined 2.0 percent.

"We need to get the customers back in here and . . . have them walk away with an opinion that is theirs and not an opinion that maybe they read from months and months ago," Tropicana president and chief operating officer Mark Giannantonio said last week as his team unveiled the ad campaign.

Easier said than done, according to marketing experts.

"Like any hotel in the industry, once the damage is done, it takes a lot longer to repair," said Nicholas Hadgis, dean of the School of Hospitality Management at Widener University in Chester, which trains gaming executives.

"A reputation takes a long time to rebuild. It will take word-of-mouth, as well as advertising and good press saying the place has really turned things around and is worth revisiting," he said. "That particular property will have to earn its stripes all over again."

Giannantonio, who began managing the hotel and casino last August after Columbia-Sussex fired his predecessor, Fred Buro, for refusing to make additional job cuts, acknowledged that major mistakes in staffing had been made. About 900 Tropicana workers were pared by Columbia-Sussex last year.

"There was a culmination of events that took place that really hurt our business," he said. "Some were certainly self-inflicted."

He said that among them were staff cuts "in the areas of cleanliness" that hurt the casino early on, and that reductions in player development and slots service caused the defections of some of the casino's most loyal customers.

He said, for instance, that having so few slots attendants caused the jackpot payout time - the interval between a slot machine posting a win and a customer getting paid - to jump from an average of eight minutes before January 2007 to as high as 24 minutes last summer. Giannantonio said the casino was rehiring 20 slots attendants.

Another major problem was excessive overtime, which he described as "abnormally high." He said there were immediate plans to rehire 100 to 150 workers - for security detail, the public-space areas, such as bathrooms, and facilities maintenance - to reduce overtime.

Other casino operators here are hoping the Tropicana succeeds. Atlantic City reported lower gambling revenue overall last year for the first time in its 29-year history of having casinos, mostly because of new slots competition from Pennsylvania and New York. The operators say the town cannot afford a weak link.

"We don't want any failures here," said Borgata president and chief operating officer Larry Mullin. "It's not good for anybody."

Amelia DiCioccio, 70, of Atlantic City, is giving the Tropicana another chance after leaving it for the Atlantic City Hilton last year. Her complaints over uncleanliness and filthy bathrooms were among those read by the gaming commission.

Since December, the Tropicana has been showering the avid slots player with cash bonuses, free meals and gifts, such as last week's choice between a handheld computer device and $300 in cash. Giannantonio said such cash-back promotions had been cut about 20 percent last year under the old regime, but were restored to previous levels when he took over in August.

"I've really started coming back," DiCioccio said Tuesday while at the Tropicana. "The workers are really working hard to give you good service."

She cited one area in particular.

"The bathrooms are much, much cleaner," she said. "The floors are not as sticky, and the trash bins aren't piling up.

"You actually see people going around cleaning," she said. "Before you never saw them."

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/13929996.html

xzmattzx

January 25th, 2008, 06:57 PM

Bid renewed to bring sports betting to A.C.

TRENTON - New Jersey legislators yesterday revived an effort to legalize betting on professional sports in Atlantic City casinos, rejecting claims by the National Football League that the move would risk the integrity of sports.
An Assembly committee pushed forward legislation that would ask voters to allow casinos to offer professional sports wagering.

Proponents of sports betting in New Jersey estimate the state might bring in up to $8 million annually in additional casino tax revenue and boost visitors to Atlantic City casinos now competing with slots parlors in neighboring states.

"Sports betting already exists in New Jersey, but only the criminals are enjoying the profits," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), the committee chairman. "Legal, carefully regulated sports wagering would bolster both Atlantic City and the state. New Jersey should go all-in."

Various estimates of illegal sports gambling in the U.S. range from $80 billion to $380 billion per year.

Similar measures were approved by Assembly committees in 2004, 2005 and 2006 but never received further consideration.

But the dynamic may have changed this year, with two leading supporters moving from the Assembly to the Senate. Jim Whelan (D., Atlantic), who chairs the Senate wagering committee, and Jeff Van Drew (D., Cape May) vowed yesterday to push the law in the Senate.

But the NFL vowed to fight the proposal, which can now be considered by the full Assembly.

"It's bad policy because it turns human players into roulette chips with the sanction of the state," said NFL attorney David H. Remes.

Bills passed the Senate in 1992 and 1993 that would have allowed sports betting in New Jersey, but never passed the Assembly.

After that, federal law restricted legalized sports betting to Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, though only Nevada enables betting on professional and college games.

Assembly Budget Chairman Louis Greenwald (D., Camden) said the federal law can be challenged as a violation of states' rights, but Senate President Richard J. Codey isn't confident.

"I think Appalachian State would have to beat the Giants before the federal government would allow us to change the law to permit sports betting in casinos," said Codey (D., Essex). "That's about where our odds stand right now."

The renewed effort comes as Atlantic City's casinos recorded the first decline in gambling revenue since they opened in 1978. The 11 casinos took in $4.9 billion last year, down from $5.2 billion in 2006. The decline was blamed on slots parlors in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York drawing away customers.

Joseph Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said the casinos "heartily support" the legislation.

"It has been a tough year for our industry," he said. "We appreciate the fact that you're taking this effort, the heavy lift that it is, to help our industry out."

Joseph Lupo, vice president of operations for the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, predicted that $800 million would be wagered on pro sports in Atlantic City each year.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080125_Bid_renewed_to_bring_sports_betting_to_A_C_.html

xzmattzx

February 22nd, 2008, 07:47 PM

$20 billion in projects in Atlantic City! The city will be entering a new age with developments like this.

Casino building jobs are plentiful
Atlantic City is planning $20 billion in projects.

ATLANTIC CITY - Jeffrey Barton moved to the Shore from Redondo Beach, Calif., a year ago to cash in on an unprecedented building boom here.

"I'm here for one thing," said Barton, 44, who makes $31.97 an hour as a tile finisher. "The work."

There are plans over the next four years for $20 billion worth of casino, hotel, restaurant and retail construction and renovation projects, many of which began in 2003. And in a slowing national economy, all that development is attracting construction workers from around the country.

Since arriving from Southern California, Barton has had plenty to do. His skill was recently needed on the Water Club, the $400 million hotel tower going up at the Borgata. Since January, he has been remodeling hotel suites on the 51st floor of the Dennis Hotel at Bally's casino.

When the Bally's project winds down next month, Barton hopes to land either at the Trump Taj Mahal's new hotel tower or the $2.5 billion Revel casino-resort - one of four megacasinos proposed here.

"It's going to be nonstop for the next four or five years for sure," Barton said while recently grouting tiles as part of the Dennis Hotel's $20 million renovation that began last November.

Only Las Vegas, which currently has $35 billion worth of casino-related construction planned or under way, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, rivals what is happening at the Shore.

Atlantic City's manic pace of development is to fortify itself against new slots competition from neighboring states.

"The building is about the fact that they [casino operators] are under a lot of pressure for the convenience gambler from Pennsylvania and Delaware," said David G. Schwartz, author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, and director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "The only real direction they can go is to have more destination gamblers, which means more hotel rooms and nongaming attractions."

And with the credit crunch and subprime mess drying up commercial and residential work in other states - including Illinois, Michigan and Florida - imported workers say Atlantic City is on everyone's radar.

"This is one of the major spots right now," said Bill Moore, 44, who moved to the Shore from Chicago last Thanksgiving to install giant marble and granite slabs on the Borgata's Water Club. When completed, the hotel tower will feature 800 rooms, a giant spa, five swimming pools, luxury lofts, upscale retail shops - and no place to gamble.

The construction has another effect. Real estate experts estimate Atlantic City will bring in 25,000 to 30,000 new casino workers over the next seven years, who will need housing.

Scott DiStefano, a sales associate with Weichert Realtor-Brigantine Realty, said he had received a half dozen such calls for rentals in the last two months.

He has seen a steady flow of out-of-state workers, such as Barton and Moore, relocating to Brigantine, which is experiencing a steady increase in property values because of its proximity to the casinos.

Mary Lou Ferry, owner of Farley & Ferry, which has three offices along the Shore, said she had an investor last month buy three condos in Ventnor to prepare as rentals for employees and contractors who will be working on the Revel casino.

"More investors are buying along the outskirts of Atlantic City, like Ventnor, to prepare for all the new workers," she said. "Rental activity has spiked through the roof."

But it's not just frontline workers who are calling real estate agents. Top managers and senior-level staff, many from Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, are also moving to the Shore.

"Florida is kind of dead right now. Completely dead because of the real estate bust and no more condominiums being built," said Dario Borge, a superintendent on the Revel casino from Miami.

Borge, 62, began renting in Brigantine eight weeks ago. He flies home to Miami on weekends and returns to Brigantine on Sunday nights.

Borge's company, Berkel & Co. Contractors Inc., a foundation firm based in Kansas City, Mo., plans to bid on the foundation work for the new $5 billion MGM Grand Casino in the city's Marina District.

If Berkel wins that job, Borge said he would be in Atlantic City through at least 2012.

The competition for workers like Borge, according to casino operators and union leaders, is fierce, and they have had to cast their net further out. Three hotel towers at Harrah's Marina, the Borgata, and the Taj Mahal are going up concurrently. Harrah's Waterfront Tower is scheduled to debut March 6, with the other two in the summer.

"When you have three big projects happening at the same time, it means the number of tradespeople coming from outside the jurisdiction is greater," said Tom Ballance, senior vice president of development for Boyd Gaming Corp., which co-owns the Borgata.

Ed Bardes, from Penndel in Bucks County, was a pump operator on the Revel project for three months before getting laid off two weeks ago when that work was complete. He is currently on a union call list for his next job - most likely the site for the $1.5 billion Pinnacle casino, where the former Sands Hotel Casino used to sit, or the MGM parcel in the Marina - both needing to be cleared by heavy equipment.

"There's work for the next 10 years easily," said Bardes, 18, a recent high school graduate who entered an apprenticeship program with Local 825 - the operators' union in New Jersey - because of the demand.

More than seven dozen giant cranes, tractors, excavators, and other heavy machinery are at work seven days a week setting foundation for two hotel towers, a podium and garage for the Revel casino next to Showboat on the Boardwalk.

"What was once a barren, unproductive property will be turned into a fantastic facility," boasted Bob Anderson, executive vice president of development for Revel Entertainment Group L.L.C., which is behind the huge casino scheduled to open in the summer of 2010.

Construction of the gambling palace will require upward of 3,000 workers that run the gamut from electricians to tile setters, carpenters and more.

Although still more than a year away from breaking ground on the Pinnacle casino, its chief executive officer, Kim Townsend, already has made contact with the unions "to make sure they understand the scope of the project," she said. She estimated up to 2,000 workers will be needed for the Pinnacle project.

The $1 billion casino proposed for the southern end of the Boardwalk by developer Curtis Bashaw and former Caesars Entertainment Inc. chief executive Wallace Barr will also need thousands of workers.

Union leaders have set up hotlines for Atlantic City nationally through a job-referral system. Local union halls in states post the jobs and what they pay.

That is how Bob Voss, 53, a tile mechanic, learned about all the openings in Atlantic City while working in New York. Voss and his crew arrived in November 2006 to remodel the casino floor at Caesars. He said they had not stopped working since.

"They've embedded us here," he said. "We've got it real good down here."

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Work proceeds on the $2.5 billion Revel casino and resort. It is one of four mammoth casino projects proposed for Atlantic City.

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Tile finisher Jeffrey Barton works at the Dennis Hotel at Bally's casino. He moved to the Shore from Redondo Beach, Calif., a year ago. "I'm here for one thing," he said. "The work."

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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080222_Casino_building_jobs_are_plentiful.html

xzmattzx

March 8th, 2008, 03:38 AM

The building boom in Atlantic City looks like it could be slowing down soon.

A.C.'s hot hand may be cooling off
Pricey casino projects getting delayed or dropped outright

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Unlike gamblers on a hot streak who think the good times will never end, the casinos know better. Yet companies have forged on with plans to spend at least $9 billion on a wave of new casino projects in the country's second-largest gambling destination, even as not-so-subtle signs were surfacing that it might be time to walk away from the table for a while.

Last week's announcement by Pinnacle Entertainment that it may scrap a mega-casino plan worth as much as $2 billion if credit markets don't improve has made the city's casino industry nervous.

"It's a very serious issue right now," said Nick Danna, a senior equity analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach. In the present environment, he added, "Companies simply can't justify embarking on these projects."

Deutsche Bank analyst Andrew Zarnett agreed.

"The credit markets are temporarily closed," he said. "That doesn't mean you can't raise money if you're willing to pay a very high rate of interest. But on anything at a reasonable rate, now wouldn't be the time. That type of deal just isn't getting done right now."

Danna, Zarnett and Pinnacle chairman Dan Lee all expect the credit climate to improve before too long. But the current crunch is raising questions about whether Atlantic City's expansions plans are too much, too fast.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine used to make exactly these types of financing decisions as chairman of Goldman Sachs. Corzine, who helped Lee push the plunger that blew up the old Sands Casino Hotel last October to clear the site for Pinnacle's project, expects things will be fine in the long run.

"Long-term investment decisions are rarely, if ever, made on the basis of short-term capital market conditions," Corzine said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "We understand that today's markets are not receptive to heavily leveraged projects, such as new casinos, but we expect that appropriately structured and exciting projects, such as the Pinnacle casino, will proceed when conditions improve."

Pinnacle's warning shouldn't have come as that great a surprise.

In late 2006, the first slots parlors opened in the Philadelphia suburbs and immediately started stealing away some of Atlantic City's most profitable and reliable customers. As a result, 2007 was the first year in the 30-year history of casino gambling in New Jersey that revenues were lower than the year before, falling 5.7 percent; only three of Atlantic City's 11 casinos reported increases for the year.

Last April, a tough new law took effect limiting smoking to no more than 25 percent of the casino floor, further alienating some gamblers.

And last month, the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, which had floated plans for a $1 billion expansion to help it compete with newer, larger casinos, quietly scrapped the plan, citing the declining economy. "There's no question these are challenging times," said Keith Smith, president of Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Atlantic City's most successful gambling hall.

The most ambitious plan for Atlantic City is MGM Mirage's $5 billion hotel-casino, which the company insists is still on track for a groundbreaking early next year.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2037/39645140vz6.jpg
A planned Atlantic City mega-casino by Pinnacle Entertainment for the site of the demolished Sands may be the latest victim of the national economic downturn.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/BUSINESS/803040319/1003

MasonsInquiries

March 8th, 2008, 03:47 AM

this is beautiful. hope it gets built!!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/10/business/11casino.600.jpg

March 8th, 2008, 05:28 AM

WOW, all i have to say

Maudibjr

March 10th, 2008, 07:00 AM

Wow, had no idea that much was happenening ion AC, even if half of it gets scrapped. Havn't been there in a few years.

xzmattzx

March 26th, 2008, 06:02 PM

Some news regarding the Tropicana.

Tropicana is upgrading to lure guests

ATLANTIC CITY - With potential buyers due to tour the place soon, the Tropicana Casino & Resort said yesterday that it would open a new slots area with an Old Havana theme.
The upgrade is designed to improve the Tropicana's flagging slots operation, which declined 15.7 percent last year.

But it is also part of the casino's plan to regain market share and create a buzz in a place that suffered from bad publicity and customer flight in 2007. That's when its former owners lost their casino license for poor service and cleanliness levels, and poor compliance with state casino regulations.

The Tropicana is for sale under the supervision of a state-appointed trustee.

Several expressions of interest were received by last week's deadline, although Gary Stein, the retired state Supreme Court justice overseeing the sale, would not say how many. He expects a sale to be completed by June.

The work on the new slots area started about two weeks ago and is due to be completed in late April or early May, said Chris Strano, vice president of sales and marketing for AC Coin & Slot, which will provide 166 new machines for the project.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/17008531.html

Jim856796

March 30th, 2008, 03:48 AM

The newspaper report shown on post #21 shows that we may never build a casino resort on the site of the Sands Hotel.

xzmattzx

May 31st, 2008, 02:45 AM

More change coming to the Marina District.

Trump Marina to become Margaritaville

Jimmy Buffett and the Jersey Shore - perfect together?

Trump Marina Hotel Casino, beaten down by age and competition in Atlantic City, will be in the hands of a New York gambling company that will rebrand and rename it Margaritaville Casino & Resort.

The new owner, Coastal Marina L.L.C., is buying the casino from Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the casino company under Donald J. Trump, for $316 million, Trump officials said yesterday.

In acquiring Trump Marina, Coastal will be faced with trying to turn around the worst performer among Trump's three casinos, one that sits next to the formidable Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and Harrah's Resort in the city's Marina district.

The 23-year-old casino has consistently ranked as the lowest revenue generator among Atlantic City's 11 gaming halls. It also has the smallest number of hotel rooms - 728.

Last month, slots revenue at Trump Marina dropped 10.6 percent and table-game revenue was off 37.2 percent, compared with the same month a year ago.

Wall Street analysts praised the sale announcement, as the Marina District, about two miles from the famed Boardwalk, prepares for a new wave of competition.

Harrah's Resort debuted a $365 million hotel tower two months ago. A $400 million, glitzy new tower at the Borgata will open in about two weeks, and MGM Mirage has plans for a $5 billion casino on land that abuts Trump Marina.

"It's good because it helps the company reduce its debt load," said Andrew Zarnett, a gambling analyst with Deutsche Bank AG in New York. "It reduces their capacity in Atlantic City by about 25 percent, which means that they can now focus on the Taj Mahal and Plaza properties - a prudent strategy at this point."

Mark Juliano, Trump Entertainment's chief executive officer, said that the two sides began talking after the new year began and that a deal appeared imminent about six weeks ago.

"When this opportunity came up, it seemed like a natural fit," he said. "The brand is a perfect fit for the Marina, and [the new owner] thought the brand worked there better than at any other casino in Atlantic City.

"When you look at the location of the Marina and the Margaritaville theme, there is nothing better than having that cove," Juliano said. "It's really a terrific location."

About 8,800 Trump Entertainment employees were told about the sale yesterday morning. About 2,100 work at Trump Marina.

Coastal Marina is an affiliate of Coastal Development L.L.C., a privately held company based in New York that has focused on financing and redeveloping resort destinations, luxury hotels and gaming facilities.

Coastal Marina is run by chairman Richard T. Fields, who said in a statement yesterday that the casino offered vast potential to become "one of the most successful destination gaming resorts in Atlantic City."

Harrah's Entertainment Inc. is developing Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Miss., also with a Jimmy Buffett theme. That $700 million casino is scheduled to open in 2010.

Donald Trump, who is chairman of Trump Entertainment, said he was "very pleased with the transaction."

"It's terrific," he said. "It's a great site and a great location, with the only real usable water in Atlantic City and . . . the Marina. They are going to have a good time with this property . . . with building and redeveloping it."

The Trump casinos have been on the block for more than a year, and at least two deals fell apart. Tightened credit markets cut the number of potential suitors.

There had been speculation that the company was having a hard time finding a buyer for all three properties because of its onerous debt. The Taj Mahal, Trump's flagship casino, alone has a debt load of about $1.5 billion.

The sale would provide Trump Entertainment with badly needed capital. A lack of funds has hamstrung the company from making significant improvements to its Atlantic City casinos while competitors moved aggressively in adding towers and other nongambling attractions.

Construction began this year on the Taj Mahal's first expansion since opening in April 1990 - a $255 million, 786-room tower due to open Labor Day weekend.

Juliano said Trump Entertainment would invest the $316 million in the Trump Taj Mahal or Trump Plaza, make an acquisition or asset purchase outside New Jersey, or pay down debt.

He said new competition made it virtually impossible for Trump Marina to stay as it was.

"In the years to come, with the new tower at the Borgata, and the one at Harrah's, and the proposal by MGM, it would have required an enormous amount of capital for us to keep the property competitive," he said. "The balance sheet just did not allow us to do the improvements we needed."

Trump Entertainment reported a wider loss in the first quarter, blaming a general economic slowdown, competition from slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York, and higher promotional costs associated with its year-old player-loyalty program, TrumpONE, which tracks customer play at all three Trump casinos.

"An incremental benefit will be that a number of Marina customers will migrate to the other two Trump properties," with the TrumpONE card as the driver, analyst Zarnett said.

MGM Mirage, which will develop the $5 billion MGM Grand Atlantic City Casino near Trump Marina, said yesterday's announcement was evidence that the Marina District was on its way.

"The energy, creativity and new capital brought into the market by new investors is exactly what Atlantic City needs to continue to grow and thrive as a major tourist destination on the Eastern Seaboard," said Bill Hornbuckle, president of the planned megacasino, which will be linked to the Borgata by an enclosed walkway.

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/3602/97590672vv3.jpg

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20080530_Trump_Marina_to_become_Margaritaville.html

Middle-Island

June 5th, 2008, 01:52 AM

Sounds like it could reinvent the sleepy marina area. I stayed at that hotel in 1993 when it was Trump Castle.

xzmattzx

June 5th, 2008, 06:20 AM

Sounds like it could reinvent the sleepy marina area. I stayed at that hotel in 1993 when it was Trump Castle.

The Borgata is already transforming the Marina District. MGM is now building a casino complex next to the Borgata. Actually, I would say that if thing go well in Atlantic City, the Trump Marina could be imploded in the next 10 or 15 years as the land is worth too much to not turn into a Vegas-style casino.

Renton12

September 2nd, 2008, 03:56 AM

More change coming to the Marina District.

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/3602/97590672vv3.jpg

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20080530_Trump_Marina_to_become_Margaritaville.html

Just some advice for the Margaritaville people. Make it easier to walk from Trumps old casino over to Harrahs and Borgota. Theres a nice walkway between Harrahs and Borgota along the waterfront. You get to the Brigantine bridge and it gets sorta crappy with no straight connecting walkway. I guess both Harrahs and Trump are at fault. Make a nice boardwalk going under the bridge and help connect all 3 casino's.

Wheelmanrob

November 3rd, 2008, 10:08 PM

Anyone know of current projects under construction?

It appears most from the beginning of this thread are near completion.

xzmattzx

November 4th, 2008, 04:58 AM

Anyone know of current projects under construction?

It appears most from the beginning of this thread are near completion.

Not sure. I haven't been to Atlantic City since March. I have heard that the tidal wave of construction has been subsiding for months now, so I don't know if there is anything being built right now.

xzmattzx

November 18th, 2008, 05:32 AM

The Madison House Hotel will be preserved, for now.

Madison House reborn in Atlantic City
Old hotel to take on international flavor

ATLANTIC CITY - They will start trickling in next month from South America. Groups from Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand will follow in March. Then another wave from Eastern Europe will arrive in late spring and stay through the summer.

These aren't international tourists, but rather the thousands of foreign students who come to Atlantic City each year seeking seasonal employment in the casinos, hotels, local restaurants, Boardwalk shops - anywhere they can find jobs.

Although the students are vital to the tourism industry, they often are reduced to living in squalid housing a world apart from the fancy casinos and hotels where they work.

But this year, an elegant old hotel will reopen its doors in December to help solve that problem. For the students, it means a safe place to stay in near-luxury surroundings. For the Madison House hotel, it means a reprieve from the wrecking ball.

"It's a good thing to have an occupied building. It's a great thing to provide these students with a single facility where they all can stay," said Kim Townsend, chief executive officer of Pinnacle Atlantic City.

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. inherited the lease for the Madison House when it bought the Sands Casino Hotel two years ago and launched plans for a new megaresort. The Madison's rooms were used for the Sands' guests, but when the casino closed for good in November 2006, the hotel also shut its doors.
Pinnacle resurrected the Madison as a corporate office, but with only 10 employees occupying the 14-story building, the hotel is a virtual ghost town. Townsend explained that the company kicked around ideas for making better use of the hotel and decided to reopen it as housing for foreign students who come here to work.

"We just saw it as a win-win situation," she said. "It's a win for us because we get to meet new friends. It's a win for the students because it keeps them in a single establishment."

Pinnacle will be reaching out to the Council for International Educational Exchange for help in bringing students to the Madison. The company also plans to work with the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, the Atlantic City Hotel & Lodging Association, the casinos and other local businesses for student referrals.

"I think it's a marvelous idea," said Howard Bacharach, executive director of the hotel association. "We should find more spots like this one."

To help students adjust to their new surroundings, Pinnacle is developing a handbook that will contain information on such things as the public transportation system, the local post office and automated cash machines at banks. The handbook also will spell out rules they must follow in the hotel.

"There will be a strict no-alcohol policy," Pinnacle spokeswoman Carmen Gonzales said.

Foreign students are typically known as J-1s, so named because they come here on J-1 work and travel visas. While many of the students toil in menial, low-paying service jobs, what they make in the United States usually exceeds what they can earn in their home countries.

Much of what they earn, however, goes toward paying for overpriced housing. Based on interviews with foreign students, The Press of Atlantic City reported last year that they often live in filthy conditions in run-down local boarding houses and apartment buildings.

Bacharach noted how students sometimes crowd together in one room, all sharing the same mattresses as they rotate through different work shifts.

"They were all sleeping in the same beds, in the same linens. God only knows if the linens were changed all summer," he said.

At the Madison, students will pay only about $80 per week - an extraordinary bargain for a hotel that was transformed into all suites during a $7 million renovation when it was under the Sands' control. Gonzales said there are 112 suites available. Sleeping in separate beds, students will double or triple up in most rooms, with possibly more in the larger suites.

Amenities include on-site laundry facilities, two lounges with TVs, vending machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators and high-speed wireless Internet access.

"We are providing a valuable service to these students and the regional businesses that employ them by offering accommodations in a market where there is a shortage of suitable student housing," Gonzales said.

When it originally opened in 1930, the Madison was considered a luxury hotel. Constructed of red brick, the Colonial Revival-style building features marble floors, arched windows, chandeliers and a stately staircase modeled after the one in Philadelphia's Independence Hall.

The Madison was designed by William Walton and Walter Price, the latter the brother of William Price, the famed architect of Atlantic City's posh Marlborough-Blenheim and Traymore hotels. The Marlborough-Blenheim and Traymore are long gone, cleared away to make room for the city's casinos. The same fate may yet await the Madison House.

The Madison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, giving it protected status but hardly an ironclad guarantee it will be saved from demolition. Pinnacle pays $2 million annually on a lease that runs to 2012 with the hotel's private owners, the Madison House Group.

Pinnacle imploded the Sands in October 2007 to create space for its proposed $1.5 billion casino. The company has made no secret of its desire to use the Madison's site for casino development. However, Pinnacle's casino plans have been stalled by the country's sluggish economy and the global credit crisis, giving the Madison some extra time.

Townsend indicated Pinnacle likely will continue using the Madison for student housing until the end of the lease in 2012.

"I think it's the greatest idea since wax paper. I hope it is," she said of the Madison's latest incarnation. "We're probably going to do it through our lease."

http://media.pressofatlanticcity.com/smedia/2008/11/10/11/288-madisonhouse.standalone.prod_affiliate.101.jpg
The Madison House, which closed two years ago when the Sands Casino Hotel shut its doors for good, will reopen next month to foreign students who come to Atlantic City for jobs each year.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/180/story/311104.html

NorthaBmore

January 26th, 2009, 12:47 AM

this is beautiful. hope it gets built!!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/10/business/11casino.600.jpg

That building is amazing! That would go by the Marina if built, right.

Renton12

February 2nd, 2009, 03:18 PM

This Project is dead. And all other A.C. projects have been postponed. That building is amazing! That would go by the Marina if built, right.

JohnFlint1985

November 26th, 2009, 05:36 AM

AS of couple months ago. Revel Casino goes forward as planned.

http://images54.fotki.com/v556/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L013-vi.jpg

http://images53.fotki.com/v426/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L049-vi.jpg

http://images17.fotki.com/v297/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L402-vi.jpg

http://images54.fotki.com/v563/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L403-vi.jpg

http://images53.fotki.com/v1578/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L409-vi.jpg

http://images112.fotki.com/v1534/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L420-vi.jpg

http://images52.fotki.com/v729/photos/7/1306457/7925969/L421-vi.jpg

November 29th, 2009, 07:07 PM

Isn't Atlantic City not doing so well right now? Why would someone want to build that now??

xzmattzx

November 30th, 2009, 03:15 AM

I know that most projects are on hold or cancelled. I was under the impression that all consturction had stopped; seeing the Revel go up is a surprise to me as well.

JohnFlint1985

November 30th, 2009, 07:52 PM

I know that most projects are on hold or cancelled. I was under the impression that all consturction had stopped; seeing the Revel go up is a surprise to me as well.

Revel was supposed to have two towers standing side by side. As of right now one is well on the road to be finished soon. the other one is just started. According to my friends who actually have business right on AC boardwalk the other tower is supposed to be started soon since they supposedly found financing and it is a prime spot right on the ocean.
These pictures I took back in the September 2009 and there was no sign of stopping anything.

JohnFlint1985

November 30th, 2009, 07:53 PM

Isn't Atlantic City not doing so well right now? Why would someone want to build that now??

apparently it is not as bad and also keep in mind it is not finished yet. Once it will be the economy should go back to some sort of upwards movement.
As Trump use to say - recession is the best time to build anything.

November 30th, 2009, 10:24 PM

I guess

zoomzoom

January 15th, 2010, 05:35 PM

Coming along nicely..

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/6371/dsc3972.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/i/dsc3972.jpg/)

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8364/dsc3979.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/i/dsc3979.jpg/)

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3644/dsc3997.jpg (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/dsc3997.jpg/)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5007/dsc4002s.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/i/dsc4002s.jpg/)

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/7421/dsc3994.jpg (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/dsc3994.jpg/)

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8/dsc3988p.jpg (http://img31.imageshack.us/i/dsc3988p.jpg/)

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4460/dsc4442h.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/dsc4442h.jpg/)

emid123

March 1st, 2010, 02:55 AM

Can't wait to see it up!

tooladd

July 27th, 2010, 05:04 AM

That is a city, which is full of many stories. welcome to that beautiful city.

desertpunk

July 30th, 2011, 05:18 PM

Revel July 23 2011

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6017/5968758970_a360929479_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968758970/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968758970/) by Senor Slugworth (http://www.flickr.com/people/slugworth/), on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6021/5968632170_14e72e613b_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968632170/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968632170/) by Senor Slugworth (http://www.flickr.com/people/slugworth/), on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6007/5968199887_416198fcda_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968199887/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968199887/) by Senor Slugworth (http://www.flickr.com/people/slugworth/), on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6024/5968200869_9b6d6982fc_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968200869/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugworth/5968200869/) by Senor Slugworth (http://www.flickr.com/people/slugworth/), on Flickr

desertpunk

August 30th, 2011, 05:41 AM

AC casinos weathered Hurricane Irene well: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/atlantic-city-nj-casinos-to-reopen-monday-at-noon-report-little-damage-from-hurricane-irene/2011/08/28/gIQAlX1MlJ_story.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost

.

JohnFlint1985

September 6th, 2011, 04:40 AM

as of 09.04.2011
according to people inside casino will open in may 2012
http://images15.fotki.com/v230/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity213-vi.jpg

http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity215-vi.jpg

http://images107.fotki.com/v780/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity216-vi.jpg

http://images114.fotki.com/v74/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity218-vi.jpg

JohnFlint1985

September 6th, 2011, 05:45 AM

44 retail stores
6 pools with cabanas
3 theaters
3 night clubs
12 restaurants

http://images114.fotki.com/v74/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity228-vi.jpg

http://images59.fotki.com/v255/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity2301-vi.jpg

http://images28.fotki.com/v141/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity239-vi.jpg

http://images110.fotki.com/v629/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity2439-vi.jpg

http://images28.fotki.com/v118/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity244-vi.jpg

http://images54.fotki.com/v77/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity2444-vi.jpg

http://images114.fotki.com/v75/photos/7/1306457/10042095/Atlanticcity2447-vi.jpg

Simfan34

September 6th, 2011, 07:16 AM

The lower floors need to interact more with their environment.

JohnFlint1985

September 6th, 2011, 09:36 PM

The lower floors need to interact more with their environment.

I am sure they will. it is not finished yet and plans include large amount of trees.

steel

September 7th, 2011, 12:03 AM

IMO It is horrible. Trees are not going to fix it.

xzmattzx

September 8th, 2011, 04:11 AM

It looks nice, but I wonder how high the popularity for this place will be. The best action seems to be shifting to the Marina District, where Borgata is. Can the buzz shift back to the Boardwalk?

JohnFlint1985

September 8th, 2011, 04:19 AM

It looks nice, but I wonder how high the popularity for this place will be. The best action seems to be shifting to the Marina District, where Borgata is. Can the buzz shift back to the Boardwalk?

I think it should have enough. Borgata is only good because it is new and it is a resort Las Vegas style which was unknown to Atlantic city before. Given the fact that Revel is on the beach and has enormous amount of different type of entertainment besides the casino it should have no problems attract enough people to it. Plus once again - don't forget it has the actual beach. Marina has none. Though I expect a lot of buzz once the Trump Marina will become Golden Nugget and also maybe Metropolitan get build. All in all the waterfront properties are squeezing old abandoned and derelict neighborhoods in the middle. And good riddance :cheers: - I walked with friends though it and I have to say it looks terrible.

desertpunk

September 8th, 2011, 04:30 AM

It's supposed to be a big indoor playground loaded with features so the austere exterior gives no hint as to the experience within. :cheers:

http://passionsofazealot.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/prasadapoolcutaway.jpg

fubo

September 8th, 2011, 06:18 PM

We were in AC two weeks ago. The Revel looks like it's gonna be a great addition to the Boardwalk experience. I have been going to AC every year or so for the last 30 years and have really noticed that the City overall has benefitted greatly from the presence of the Casinos. The outlet area behind Caesars, the shopping pier in front of Ceasars, the new hospitals, convention center and schools all built over the past decade or so. Tons of new townhouses in areas such as Baltic Ave etc.

I remember how the city looked in 1980 (and have pictures of it taken then when I was a freshman in college visiting a nearby roommate) compared to then the City of Atlantic City is much nicer now. Is it nice compared to other Cities? Nope !!! But it is nice compared to it's 1980 self.

xzmattzx

November 28th, 2011, 03:35 AM

Trump no more, Golden Nugget polishes own brand

The thousands of "Trump" references are gone from hotel doors, corridors and the sides of the building, along with the hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions?) of tiny interlocked "T''s that dominated the carpeting.

One of the first orders of business for the new owners of Trump Marina Hotel Casino when they bought it in May was to strip the Trump name and all remaining remnants from the premises. That was the easy part.

Now comes the much harder task of establishing their own brand for the casino now known as the Golden Nugget Atlantic City. Houston-based Landry's Restaurants bought the casino-hotel for $38 million — about a tenth of what former owners Trump Entertainment Resorts nearly got for it just two years earlier. But that sale fell through and Atlantic City casino values collapsed as the economy headed south.

...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFgguuPjN5l9P_29jTD3IdTolx-g?docId=13d210e9abc144f7970e1d1c3ff7f51a

desertpunk

December 16th, 2011, 07:38 AM

UWISHUNU.com (http://www.uwishunu.com/tag/revel-casino/)

December 9, 2011

More Expansion News: Chef Jose Garces To Open Three New Restaurants In Atlantic City This Spring

Posted by James

http://www.uwishunu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/garces-revel-comp-680uw.jpg

boardwalk this spring. (Left courtesy Garces Group; right courtesy Revel)

Jose Garces is continuing to expand his restaurant empire, announcing yesterday that he will open three new restaurants in Atlantic City this spring. All three restaurants will be located in the giant new Revel casino/resort/hotel that is opening in Atlantic City this spring.

Drawing from his incredibly popular and successful Philadelphia concepts, Chef Garces will open Amada, an authentic Andalusian tapas bar; Village Whiskey, serving spirits and artfully crafted cocktails alongside American dishes and amazing burgers; and Distrito Cantina, a festive margarita bar with a selection of 100 tequilas and modern Mexican street food from a Guapos Tacos take-out window.

Revel is going to be a major new destination on Atlantic City’s boardwalk. Garces’ three restaurants will be joined by nearly a dozen other restaurants, three clubs, more than 1,000 guest rooms, retail shops, a 28,000-square-foot spa, two theaters that seat 5,500 and 500 guests respectively and a 150,000-square-foot casino.

[...]

Nino_B

January 15th, 2012, 01:46 AM

desertpunk

January 15th, 2012, 02:43 AM

This isn't good news for Atlantic City.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/story/2012-01-14/casions-new-revenue/52554976/1

They should have built the vacation destination megacasinos like Vegas and Macau while the economy was still good. Now the local competition is catching up and AC may never again be the draw it once was.

Competition only makes you better. :yes:

How awesome was AC when they had the monopoly on gaming in the East Coast back in the early 80s? Answer: not awesome at all.

Jim856796

February 10th, 2012, 02:55 AM

There is a proposed casino-hotel named Hard Rock Atlantic City which will have 200 guest rooms and only 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2) in its first phase. New regulations which require new casino hotel construction in Atlantic City to have a minimum of 200 rooms, lower than 500, have advanced the project. A new casino hotel can initially have 200 rooms, and include footing for potential expansion to 500 rooms. A second phase will allow expansion to 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of gaming space and 850 hotel rooms.

desertpunk

March 23rd, 2012, 10:49 AM

Revel Puts Finishing Touches on Atlantic City’s Newest, Poshest Casino-Hotel (http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/03/20/revel-puts-finishing-touches-on-atlantic-citys-newest-poshest-casino-hotel/)

http://media.nj.com/gloucester-photos/photo/2012/03/10718582-standard.jpg
http://photos.nj.com/gloucester-photos/2012/03/revel_resort_and_casino_previe_48.html

By David Madden and Robin Rieger

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) – It is the second tallest building in New Jersey according to revel officials who welcomed media tours of the nearly finished Atlantic City property, Tuesday afternoon, prior to a soft opening on April 2nd.

“The design of the space of the entire property is to convey joy excitement, entertainment,” says architect Michael Prifti from Blt architects. He coordinated over 60 designers. They start accepting guests here next month, although the formal grand opening for the 6½-million-square-foot property is slated for Memorial Day weekend. Revel has almost 1,900 hotel rooms, which are sleek and elegant with ocean views. 14 restaurants, retail space and a spa, all spread over 6.3 million square feet.

But with competition from neighboring states consistently dropping casino revenues in Atlantic City, is another casino a safe bet? “We’re not focused on gaming,” says Revel’s public relations director Maureen Simon.

Nino_B

May 26th, 2012, 03:41 PM

Revel yell: Atlantic City resort has grand opening

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — After a flood of TV advertising and a two-month preview period aimed more at working out glitches than showing off its full capabilities, Atlantic City's newest casino resort is fully unpacked — and eager to show it can be a big moneymaker...............................................

.............................................The casino also drew criticism for its policy, unique in Atlantic City, of limiting many customer service jobs to terms of four to six years, after which workers will have to re-apply. DeSanctis said the rule is to prevent workers from becoming apathetic and indifferent to the needs of Revel's guests.......................

full article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501843_162-57441679/revel-yell-atlantic-city-resort-has-grand-opening/

desertpunk

July 30th, 2012, 07:10 AM

Gov. Christie Opposes Gambling Expansion To Prptect Atlantic City (http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/07/26/gov-christie-opposes-gambling-expansion-to-protect-atlantic-city/)

http://therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/AC-casinos.jpg
From left: Gov. Chris Christie, Newmark Chairman Jeffrey Gural and the Revel resort

Just as New York appears closer to legalizing gambling, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is blocking attempts to expand his state’s gambling options beyond Atlantic City, according to Bloomberg News.

After Pennsylvania legalized slots in 2006 and table games in 2010, it began usurping gambling revenue from Atlantic City. In fact, revenue for boardwalk casinos has fallen 37 percent since 2006, to $3.3 billion last year. And with more competition likely to arrive from New York, lawmakers want to amend the state constitution to allow casinos near the Meadowlands, closer to Manhattan.

But Christie said he wouldn’t back expansion until he knows for certain he can’t turn around Atlantic City. “Atlantic City deserves to have five years to try and get itself revitalized and back on its feet,” Christie has said. He’s working to encourage development in the area, and already gave a $261 million tax break towards the development of the boardwalk’s first new casino in a decade, the Revel.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural is pushing Christie to reduce his time frame. He owns the Meadowlands racetrack and wants to develop a casino on the site, which he said could net the state $350 million a year, depending on how it taxes that revenue.

desertpunk

August 4th, 2012, 12:39 AM

NY Post (http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/is_atlantic_city_cool_again_7f5hysY22WIoUD2W3OgB8O)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/07/29/travel/29CHECKIN/29CHECKIN-articleLarge.jpg

Is Atlantic City cool again?

Long faded and anything but fabulous, the boardwalk is now back on the map in a big way with a new mega-resort that’s looking to attract hip young crowds — with money to spare

By DOREE LEWAK

Last Updated: 10:58 AM, August 2, 2012
Posted: 10:31 PM, August 1, 2012

It's a summer Sunday afternoon, and Adam, a preppy blond finance guy, is still wearing his loafers, jeans and untucked button-down shirt from the night before. It’s the telltale sign of a good night — that, and the fact he hasn’t gotten any sleep.

“I never expected AC to be anything like this,” says the 26-year-old Greenwich Village resident, who partied the night away at HQ, a nightclub at Revel, the new 6.3-million-square-foot boardwalk mega-resort, which opened in Atlantic City over Memorial Day weekend. “As a first-timer, I didn’t expect a Vegas-style experience.”

After getting the VIP treatment in the hotel’s “Cabanas” lounge, which lays on special favors for big spenders, his friend, Corey, 26, is already a Revel believer: “They gave us models, which is great,” says the entrepreneur who also declined to give his last name. Of course, those models will cost you. Weekend access to the “Cabanas” starts at $2,000 a day for a party of six.

The guys, in town for a bachelor party, are in a pretty good mood despite spending what any high roller would consider a small fortune the night before. “We dropped serious money — probably about $40,000 among six guys,” says Adam casually. “We wanted to blow it out — bottle service, cabanas, gambling.”

Gambling in Atlantic City is certainly nothing new; for decades, the seaside town has been synonymous with retirees and their jugs of nickels hoping to strike it big at the Golden Nugget. Dilapidated hotels dotted the strip along the former crown jewel beach town, making it look like one big ashtray.

But the tone of Atlantic City has slowly been changing, and with it, a concerted effort to make the Jersey Shore town appeal to a younger, hipper set — partiers who might otherwise be headed to Vegas or summer party spots like East Hampton.

“If you build it, they will come.” That’s what Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis has been betting on as he tries to reinvent the city as the new go-to summer — and fall and winter — destination. And celebs have been making their way down the shore this season to the $2.4 billion mega-resort, including Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Jennifer Hudson and Megan Hilty. J.Lo, along with boyfriend Casper Smart, just decamped this Tuesday from a two-night stay in one of only two decadent sky suites — a palatial 3,800-square-foot loft-like space — where she enjoyed an in-room massage and played craps at a private table in the Ultra Lounge

[...]
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/is_atlantic_city_cool_again_7f5hysY22WIoUD2W3OgB8O#ixzz22WdFlkkH

desertpunk

August 11th, 2012, 03:06 AM

The Pier Shops At Caesars Deemed 'Near Worthless' (http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/08/10/atlantic-city-mall-really-is-near-worthless/)

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2616/3691468141_902f8a1446_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gml527/3691468141/)
The Pier Shops at Caesars Atlantic City, NJ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gml527/3691468141/) by Guenther Lutz (http://www.flickr.com/people/gml527/), on Flickr

Its not just gamblers taking big losses at Atlantic City. The Pier Shops at Ceasars, once valued at $210 million and backed by a top-rated commercial-mortgage bond, has been deemed essentially worthless. According to Bloomberg News, no bidders in an auction were willing to pay more than $25 million for the $80 million mortgage on the property, held by loan servicer C-III Capital Partners.

The property was valued at $56.5 million in January 2011, four years after it was estimated to be worth $210 million.

“Most people in the CMBS market have gotten the sense that this asset really is near worthless,” said Lea Overby, a debt strategist at Nomura.

Nino_B

February 15th, 2013, 05:22 PM

Revel Casino Hires Restructuring Lawyers and Bankers

Wall Street Journal By MIKE SPECTOR, ALEXANDRA BERZON And HEATHER
HADDON February 12, 2013

Revel, the struggling Atlantic City casino, has hired restructuring lawyers and bankers to mull options for reworking a heavy debt load, said people familiar with the matter.

Revel Entertainment Group LLC, whose operating subsidiary runs the casino and carries roughly $1.2 billion in debt, hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP and investment bank Moelis & Co. within the past week, the people said. Discussions on how to address the debt are at an early stage and decisions haven't been made on next steps, the people said.

Revel has been bailed out by investors several times since opening in April and this month revealed it had amended a credit agreement for the fourth time and hired Alvarez & Marsal, a turnaround firm that helps companies conserve cash and restructure operations.

The casino took in less than $8 million in gambling revenue in January, according to state figures released Monday. Gambling revenue dropped 19% from December, making January the second-worst month for the casino since it opened. While Revel tends to perform better on other items, such as food and beverage sales, the gambling sales figures were the second-lowest of all the dozen casinos in Atlantic City. Moody's Investors Service cut Revel's credit rating earlier this month. The ratings firm said Revel has yet to turn a profit and called the casino's finances "unsustainable."

Kirkland and Moelis often advise companies on bankruptcy filings and other ways to restructure obligations, such as raising additional capital or getting creditors to agree to redo debts outside of court. Revel is considering negotiating a so-called prepackaged bankruptcy that would get creditors on board with a restructuring plan ahead of a Chapter 11 filing and limit the company's stay in court, though it is one of a number of options under consideration, some of the people said. A few key investment firms hold much of Revel's debt, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Revel's chief investment officier, Michael Garrity, said Tuesday, "Revel has consistently worked to increase our financial flexibility, as evidenced by the additional capital we raised in December. We will continue to prudently evaluate various alternatives with regard to our capital structure, and remain focused on providing a signature Revel experience for all of our guests."

After fits and starts, Revel opened last year, envisioned as a project to boost Atlantic City's reputation as an entertainment and convention destination and not just a gambling center. But the nonsmoking casino proved unpopular among gamblers. Hurricane Sandy, meanwhile, closed the casino for several days in late October and early November.

In December, investors contributed $150 million in new debt to buttress the casino's finances.

At the time, investors indicated they wanted to buy time for Chief Executive Kevin DeSanctis to mount a turnaround, according to people familiar with the matter.

Executives have told lenders the casino intends to do a better job of attracting slot-machine gamblers, but have emphasized the casino's low-cost structure as a potential benefit that could help turn around operations, some of the people said. Executives have also pointed to Hurricane Sandy as a one-time negative event that hit the entire Atlantic City market hard, some of the people said.

The managers planned to spend around $10 million on new amenities, including quick-service restaurants and a lounge area with high-limit slot games, a person familiar with the matter said. They intend to make those changes by May, ahead of Atlantic City's crucial summer season, a person familiar with the matter said.

Revel's troubles also have a political dimension. Revel has become a well-publicized symbol of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's desire to turn Atlantic City into an inviting weekend destination rather than a quick day-trip venue. The governor proclaimed in the fall that Revel would "change the paradigm in Atlantic City." He helped the casino secure around $260 million in tax rebates to fund nearby improvement projects, as well as an additional loan in 2011.

The main union that represents casino workers, Unite Here, and conservative tax-payer groups, have argued that the help provided Revel with an unfair advantage over rival casinos.

Revel began in 2006 as a Morgan Stanley MS -0.04%development, before that bank abandoned the project midway through construction and wrote down nearly its entire $1.25 billion investment.

In early 2011, a group of lenders backed Mr. DeSanctis with a $1.2 billion loan to complete Revel.