Revel finally revealed their plans for their new casino and hotel resort, and I have to admit – I’m a little disappointed. MGM definitely stole their thunder, even though the Revel site is not as large as the MGM Grand site next to the Borgata, it is in a better location (on the boardwalk, where the majority of the other casinos are) and with the backing from Morgan Stanley, I expected Revel to pull out all of the stops for the announcement of what was going to be on the site.

The “Revel” (just ‘Revel’ nothing else) will be on 20 acres and have two separate hotel towers, with 1,900 rooms each, giving the project a total of 3,800 rooms, with 500,000 square feet of dining, retail and entertainment space, including a 5,000 seat theatre, and a full service spa in addition to a “one-acre oceanfront beach”. The project is scheduled to take 36 months for completion and “footing and foundation work will commence shortly”, so it looks as though an opening date is scheduled for late 2010, early 2011.

One kicker is that Revel is not sure if they are going to build both towers at once or over time (C’mon Morgan Stanley!), and the press release doesnt go into detail as to how the dining, retail, and entertainment space will be divided up. Revel is also being very shy as to what to expect from the hotel and casino, for example, I had heard that the Revel site was going to be a super high end casino, is that still the case? Is it going to be in the design of a boutique hotel? Traditional luxury? Is it going to have a Las Vegas like feel? I’m almost thinking that they rushed this press release due to MGM’s recent announcement and the pending release of information from Pinnacle.

Another disappointment with Revel is how MGM beat Revel by announcing they will be building higher towers than Revel. Initially, over the summer Revel pushed for rules to be lifted which limited the height of Atlantic City buildings, and thus proceeded to publicize the fact that their casino at 710 feet would be the highest building in Atlantic City, and the second highest building in New Jersey – the Goldman Sachs building in Jersey City is the highest – but MGM has since announced that their towers will be higher than Revels once MGM’s property opens in 2012.

Rendering of Revel’s Casino Resort in Atlantic City

One credit I do have to give Revel is the design of the building – it has a VERY unique and attractive tower design that portrays light trying to break through the center of the towers, plus the design of the roofs on the main portion of the building portray ocean waves, but I’ll be honest, in my experience with renderings vs actual completed project – things look VERY different. Most of the time architects and developers over-do the renderings to make it more appealing while they go through the approval process. There are a few glaring things that I don’t believe will appear in the final building design – such as – bonfires on the roof? A roof-top restaurant in front of the north tower – without any type of rooftop access? I think this project will be a great disappointment for those who are expecting the final project to very closely resemble the renderings.

Rendering of entrance to Revel’s Casino in Atlantic City

Revel needs to do a lot more promotion and marketing for this project – as it is, ever since the beginning of 2007, driving into Atlantic City on Route 30 you are surrounded by billboard after billboard promoting the Pinnacle Entertainment project – building up excitement for a project for which not much information has been released yet.

We’ll just have to see, but from what I can tell – I’m not impressed.

andrew@alconic-inc.com