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.
