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by Manos Angelakis
The gaming industry in Atlantic City is feeling the intense competition from Las Vegas and the casinos in Connecticut, and fearing the upcoming addition of competitors from Upstate New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. So they are finally attempting to really upgrade the city’s image from its current perception as  a low class, day-tripper Mecca.
Parts of the much-vaunted Boardwalk are still the way it was when the industry made its incursion into the dilapidated city more than 15 years ago. Some of the hotels have recently upgraded their Boardwalk frontage by creating false façades imitating colorful small-town buildings, but a lot of the space is still taken by decrepit pizza parlors, arcades, and tacky dollar and souvenir stores. It does not help either that many of  the shows and headline acts booked in the entertainment venues are mostly has-beens in their declining years.
It was about 2 years ago, when visits of truly affluent gamblers started to lag severely, that the marketing people at the casinos started to get worried. Affluent individuals and high rollers don’t want to rub elbows with the hoi-polloi. They don’t want to spend money in restaurants with no-name chefs and, of course, they would not be caught dead standing in line for one of the discount buffets. And shopping? Forget shopping! Few stores in the hotel arcades used to carry the kind of trophy merchandise coveted by the trophy companions of many of the very affluent gamblers.
Two new projects are trying to ameliorate this dearth of high-end retail and celebrity chef restaurants.
 The first is a project (still mostly under construction) of developer Sheldon Gordon, the man behind the Forum Shops, a Las Vegas shopping and entertainment complex that is considered a key part of that city’s recent transformation. The gleaming, 900-foot $200 million pier that now stands where the Million Dollar Pier once was, is supposed to have the same impact on Atlantic City that the Forum Shops had in Vegas. Called “The Pier at Caesars” also known as “One Atlantic Ocean”, it had a soft opening to great fanfare on the last week of June. By the end of the year, it is expected to have 90 retailers and 10  restaurants. Although some of the stores already in place could be found in any mall (Victoria’s Secret, Coach, Guess, Gymboree), the majority of the future tenants are supposed to be super-high-end. An entire level is dedicated to couture, though the names already in place, Burberry, Gucci, Tourneau, and Tiffany are just little more than slightly better mass merchandisers. But, there are signs for name designer stores that are also coming on line.
The other project was unveiled the last day of June at the Borgata. Borgata is supposed to be hip and the utmost in luxury. Atlantic City’s answer to Las Vegas. Tour busses and day-trippers are not welcomed as they are considered low-end business. On Friday the first phase of the new expansion opened, featuring a new 85-table poker room, 36 table games, approximately 500 slot machines, a second nightclub, and three signature restaurants; Bobby Flay Steak, Wolfgang Puck’s American Grille, and SEABLUE, a Michael Mina restaurant. Borgata's further expansion is already underway and will include a second hotel adjoining the property. The Water Club at Borgata is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2007. The second hotel will feature approximately 800 guest rooms and suites with its own porte cochere and entrance, along with 4 swimming pools and a spa in the sky.
I’m sorry to say that it will take considerable time and a lot more money for the city’s image to change. The casinos are still islands in the middle of a city where major parts are in need of redevelopment. From a distance, the skyline looks great; it is only when one drives into the actual town that the signs of decay are still considerably visible.
A few swallows do not make summer.
© July 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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