Atlantic City to Welcome MGM Grand, next to Borgota

Impact of MGM major in once-seedy Atlantic City

MGM
Mirage's $5 billion mega-casino will dwarf anything ever seen before in
Atlantic City and will energize the formerly fallen city. One major
reason for renewed development: the success of the Borgota.


"The move is part of an ongoing gamble by casino operators to
polish Atlantic City's image and attract upscale customers who want to
do more than just bet money," reported the AP


The project will be called MGM Grand Atlantic City. The cost
of between $4 and $5 billion does not include the land value, the
company said in a statement.


It will be built on a 72-acre site at Renaissance Pointe owned
by MGM. It's next to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which the
company co-owns with Boyd Gaming Corp.


''We ... hope to re-energize the city's resort offerings and
attract a new market of affluent East Coast customers,'' said Terry
Lanni, MGM's chairman and CEO of the casino operator. He added:


"We believe the success at Borgata demonstrates the eagerness
for further evolution of the nation's second-largest gaming market."

The resort will be the city's tallest building and dominate the architectural skyline




Plans call for three hotel towers with more than 3,000 rooms,
which would make it the largest such facility in the New Jersey resort
town. If approved by city officials, it would also have the largest
casino floor in the state, with 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games
and a poker room, along with a 1,500-seat theater, restaurants and
nightclubs, a spa, a convention center and 500,000 square feet of
retail space.

The city's 11 casinos in recent years have invested billions
of dollars to attract more upscale visitors who are drawn by
entertainment, dining and shopping options, ala Las Vegas.


''It's…another step in Atlantic City's evolution to a
full-scale destination resort, which is critical given the competition
we currently face,'' said Joe Corbo, president of the Casino
Association of New Jersey.


Atlantic City's casinos are being hurt this year by slots
parlors in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York which are siphoning off
gamblers that were once Atlantic City's exclusive customers, reports
the AP.


Compared with last year, Atlantic City's gambling revenue fell
4% from the start of the year through August. It may mark the first
annual revenue decline in the city's 29-year history of gambling.


Ground breaking is expected next year, with an anticipated opening in 2012.




''It is a bet on what Atlantic City can become, not on what it
is right now,'' said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Robert
LaFleur. ''We are long-term believers that the market can transition
from a predominantly day tripper market to more of a Las Vegas
overnight destination.''


Meanwhile, Boyd Gaming Corporation completed its assessment of
the damage caused by a fire last month at its $400 million Water Club
development.

"Although we are disappointed by the delay caused by the
fire, we currently remain on track to open The Water Club's doors in
time for the peak of the Atlantic City tourism season in 2008," said
Keith Smith, President and Chief Operating Officer of Boyd Gaming.


The hotel will have 800 rooms and 18,000 square feet of meeting space.




Report by David WIlkening

Great post Ajani - thanks for sharing the info!

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 19, 1:59 PM ET






ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Five years from now, you might not even recognize
this place. A burst of new, luxurious mega-casino projects to be built
by 2012 will transform the face of Atlantic City into a more futuristic — and crowded — gambling resort.
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At least four companies are betting a combined $9 billion that the makeover will help Atlantic City catch up with Las Vegas as a place to come — and stay — for more than just gambling.
In early November, Revel Entertainment
Group unveiled drawings of its new $2 billion casino-resort, to be
called simply "Revel." Due to open in the second half of 2010, at 710
feet, it will be the tallest building in Atlantic City — at least for a
while.
It will feature two thin towers standing perpendicular to the ocean,
with as many as 3,900 rooms, and even Atlantic City's first casino
wedding chapel. The interior complex, between the towers, is curved and
rounded so that it looks as if it has been shaped by gentle ocean waves.
Revel is partnering with investment firm Morgan Stanley on the project.
It will become Atlantic City's 12th casino, and the first new one to open since the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa debuted in 2003 and redefined the public's image of what the Las Vegas experience should look and feel like in New Jersey.
Hot on the heels of "Revel" will be other mega-casinos to be built
by Pinnacle Entertainment on the site of the former Sands Hotel Casino,
opening in late 2011 or early 2012. The granddaddy of them all, a $5
billion casino resort planned by MGM Mirage
in the marina district next to the Borgata, will be the largest project
Atlantic City has ever seen when the first dice start tumbling in 2012.
The burst of new investment is the largest in Atlantic City since the start of casino gambling in 1978.
"Since the inception of New Jersey's gaming industry, there has been
approximately $12 billion of capital investment to date," said Joseph
Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey. "While that
is significant by any standard, what is very encouraging is that about
$4 billion of that investment was made in the past four years or so."
Pinnacle has been tight-lipped about its Atlantic City project,
other than to estimate its price at between $1.5 and $2 billion. It
won't say what it will look like or even what it will be called.
But the company's chairman and CEO, Daniel Lee, said that in
addition to its Boardwalk project, Pinnacle might consider joining the
scrum of casino operators vying to build on the former Bader Field
airport property, a 150-acre tract whose land alone could fetch $1
billion on the open market.
"We have two in St. Louis; we could have two in Atlantic City," Lee said.
It marked a turnaround for Pinnacle, which had threatened for months
to scrap its Boardwalk project if the city and state permitted someone
else to build a casino on Bader Field. The company maintained it would
be at a competitive disadvantage because the newcomer would not have to
buy multiple parcels, knock down buildings and clean up the site — as
Pinnacle is doing on the Sands property.
Corbo estimated as many as three new casinos could be built at Bader
Field if a city panel determines casino development is right for the
area.
Saving the biggest for last, "MGM Atlantic City" will wrest the
title from Revel as Atlantic City's tallest building when it opens in
2012. It will have three hotel towers with a combined total of more
than 3,000 rooms, the largest casino floor in Atlantic City with 5,000
slot machines, 200 table games and 500,000 square feet of retail space,
among other attractions.
MGM is a partner in The Borgata with Boyd Gaming.
A possible fourth new casino to be built on land near the Atlantic
City Hilton Casino Resort by Curtis Bashaw, the former Casino
Reinvestment chairman, and Wally Barr, the former chief executive
officer of Caesar's Entertainment, is also on the drawing board.
The new casinos will join an already-expanding skyline: The Borgata, Trump Taj Mahal Casino resort,
and Harrah's Atlantic City are all building second hotel towers.
Earlier this year, the Hilton floated the idea of a $1 billion
expansion, but company officials won't say if that's still on the
table.
The new investment is not only attracting others interested in
entering the Atlantic City market, but also forcing those already here
to spend more to keep up or risk becoming irrelevant.

"This is exactly the development cycle that Las Vegas has experienced over the past 15 to 20 years, and is what Atlantic City is poised to achieve as well," Corbo said.

___

On The Net:

Revel Entertainment: http://www.revelentertainment.com

Pinnacle Entertainment: http://www.pinnacleatlanticcity.com

MGM Mirage: http://www.mgmmirage.com

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