Word: casino
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...about time. Real estate developers and casino companies are plowing billions of dollars into low-rent Atlantic City--known for day-tripping seniors, nickel slots and giveaway buffets--in an attempt to reinvent the resort town as a Las Vegas--style destination packed with shows, shops and celebrity chefs. The folks in Jersey see no reason why Vegas should have a lock on garish spectacle and conspicuous spending...
Last week the first stores in the Pier opened, as did a $200 million expansion of the Borgata casino hotel that includes restaurants by star chefs Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay and Michael Mina. "People want to do more than gamble," says Pam Popielarski, president of the Tropicana casino hotel, which opened its complex of stores, restaurants and IMAX movie theater, dubbed the Quarter, in late 2004. "They want entertainment...
...breaks for nongambling development, the competitive threat of slots in neighboring states and the 2003 opening of the first new casino in 13 years finally kick-started the city. Borgata, with its scantily clad cocktail waitresses and $150 dinners, raised the ante for the industry. "It's kind of like when Steve Wynn opened the Mirage," says chef Flay, referring to Vegas' first megacasino, which opened in 1989. After Wynn made a volcano, everyone built over...
...year after Borgata opened, the Cordish Co., a mall developer based in Baltimore, Md., opened the Walk, a string of outlet stores; the Tropicana's Quarter also got going. House of Blues started bringing in hip acts to the Showboat casino, and Atlantic City's nightlife began to surge as rap star Jay-Z and others opened clubs. A slew of room expansions was announced, filling a major need in Atlantic City, which with only 18,000 rooms (compared with 133,000 in Las Vegas) can't accommodate big conventions. At the same time, a real estate boom in once...
Success like that is spurring growth. In March Morgan Stanley said it would buy boardwalk-adjacent property and look for a partner to build a casino. Bally's and Caesars are about to announce expansion plans. Trump Entertainment Resorts, recently out of bankruptcy, is seeing salvation in building more rooms and converting its pier into a retail-and-entertainment complex. And MGM Mirage, which owns land next door to the Borgata, is advancing its timetable for building a massive complex of rooms, condos and retail. "It's no longer a question of if," MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni said recently...