The Chelsea Atlantic City Renderings

Andrew Calvo | April 2, 2008 | 1 Comment

Earlier this week I wrote an article on Hotel Chatter about the renderings for The Chelsea in Atlantic City but I wanted to elaborate on them in a little more space than HotelChatter’s articles allow me too.

As I’ve written about numerous times on this blog – The Chelsea located in the former Holiday Inn on the Boardwalk and adjoining Howard Johnson in Atlantic City is the first non-casino boutique hotel in Atlantic City. It’s also the first hotel in non-casino hotel to be opened in a number of decades that is not of the economy segment – of which Atlantic City has many of tucked in between some casinos in the boardwalk area.

The Chelsea had its work cut out for it, bringing in a hotel that has no branding or worldwide reservations center to support it, nor a casino ensuring a steady customer base day in and day out. After seeing these renderings and viewing the website – I’m happy to say that I think The Chelsea will be an overwhelming success.

The Chelsea is being positioned as more than just a hotel – its being positioned as an “it place”. Rather than boring restaurants that serve a very unoriginal menu the developers have brought in Stephen Starr to run two restaurants – one a steakhouse and another is a diner-inspired restaurant called Teplitzky’s. The design and decor of Teplitzky’s is unique because it brings back thoughts of the old-fashioned diners, and hotel-restaurants such as the Howard Johnson’s Restaurants (fitting since the building was once a Howard Johnson). Additionally The Chelsea’s destination place will be “The 5th Floor” which I believe will only be open to the public during the evening and contain a number of bars, lounge, game room, large pool deck and cabanas. During the summer it’s easy to see how it will be a popular night spot for those who dont want to spend all day in the Casino. Lastly, The Chelsea will include a spa which has a salt-water pool and has a lot of emphasis on salt type-treatments.

Of course you cannot forget the rooms, the hotel will be divided into two sections – Chelsea Luxe and Chelsea Lite. I’m pretty sure the Luxe portion will be in the high-rise adjoining the boardwalk, whereas the Lite portion will be the former Howard Johnson hotel which is only a few stories high and does not offer the same views as the high-rise portion. The room amenities will be the same, yet I think the only difference will be the size, decor and of course – the views.

The entire premise of The Chelsea is based upon bringing the Atlantic City of yesteryear back – yet with a modern twist. As I’ve mentioned previously in some posts, I don’t completely see that via the renderings, but then again – I really don’t know what my idea of a modern yesteryear is, but I’ll reserve final judgement for when the hotel opens as a lot of times its difficult to tell just via computer generated renderings. Although, the exterior look – pink neon lights & a classic neon sign clearly do the job!

The hotel is due to open in mid-July 2008, a minor delay from their original Memorial Day weekend opening – yet still very commendable since they have clearly done a top down renovation which started only in mid-2007.