Casino News Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com
By Donald Wittkowski Staff Writer, (609) 272-7258
Published: Friday, June 2, 2006
Updated: Friday, June 2, 2006
ATLANTIC CITY - Devotees of Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa may have feared the upscale property was going downhill by including a food court in its new $200 million expansion project.Despite its low-budget name, the Cafeteria will be a cut above the ordinary, mall-like food court, Borgata assures.
"Our food court is going to be atypical," said Auggie Cipollini, Borgata's senior vice president and chief administrative officer. "There will be chandeliers. Ours is chandeliers all over the place."
And marble floors, too.
Using architectural renderings and photographs, Cipollini gave a sneak peek of the Cafeteria and the rest of the expansion project during a presentation Thursday before the Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association.
From the chandelier-accented food court to three gourmet restaurants run by top chefs to a posh nightclub, the new building is expected to continue the Borgata-is-upscale theme.
The expansion's grand opening is scheduled for June 30. A media preview tour on June 29 will include appearances by Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay and Michael Mina, the celebrity chefs who will each operate high-end restaurants.
Borgata, Atlantic City's first Las Vegas-style megaresort, is building a $525 million expansion only three years after it opened to meet the intense demand for its gambling attractions and cutting-edge entertainment.
The expansion's $200 million first phase includes the gourmet restaurants, the Cafeteria food court, a trendy nightclub and 36,000 square feet of casino space. There will be 520 new slot machines, 44 gaming tables and an 85-table poker room that Cipollini described as "big and beautiful."
The Cafeteria will include eight fast-food outlets, including Tony Luke's Old Philly Style Sandwiches and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. Although the food court will be fashionably decorated, it is targeted at budget-conscious customers who may have been reluctant to eat at Borgata in the past.
An 800-room hotel tower is the centerpiece of Borgata's $325 million second phase of expansion, scheduled to open in late 2007. Dubbed the Water Club, the tower will feature 50 suites, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and an opulent "spa in the sky." The outside of the building will resemble Borgata's existing gold-hued tower, but will be accented by white bands wrapped around it.
Despite already having 2,000 guest rooms, Borgata had a 92 percent occupancy rate in the first quarter of 2006 and needs more capacity to keep up with demand. Borgata is the city's top-grossing casino, raking in $704.4 million in gaming revenue in 2005.
Mayor Bob Levy, who was in the audience for Cipollini's presentation, said Borgata's expansion is the next step in Atlantic City's evolution from a daytripper market to a more affluent overnight tourist destination.
"We continue to change the type of customer coming into the city," Levy said. "We're finally tapping into a market that had been untapped for so long."
Aiming for more upscale customers, Harrah's is building a $550 million expansion that includes a new hotel tower as well as retail and entertainment attractions and Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort is planning to add a $250 million tower.
Levy noted he is inundated by proposals from developers that want to join the city's hot gambling and real estate markets. Declining to reveal the developer's name or the location of its project, Levy said that he met Thursday with a nongaming company that hopes to build a new casino in partnership with a casino operator.
He also has a meeting next week with representatives of Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley, which plans to recruit a gaming company to build a billion-dollar casino on oceanfront property that it recently bought in the South Inlet, adjacent to Showboat Casino Hotel.
To e-mail Donald Wittkowski at The Press:
DWittkowski@pressofac.com
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