from yesterday's (CT) The Day --
MGM Grand 'Significantly Different' From Foxwoods
By Patricia Daddona
Published on 10/3/2007 in Home »Business »Business Local
"Mashantucket — When visitors leave slot machines at Foxwoods Resort Casino to sample food at a restaurant or browse shops there, they have to circumnavigate walls and traipse down long corridors.
At the new, $700 million MGM Grand at Foxwoods, scheduled to open in May, all paths lead from the casino outward to the restaurants and stores.
Modeled after Las Vegas casinos, where the gaming area is in the center of the building, the interior of the new MGM Grand has been designed by Wilson & Associates of Dallas, with the look and feel of Vegas in mind.
“The layout and design is much more the style of what you'd see in a Las Vegas casino,” said John O'Brien, president of both MGM Grand and Foxwoods." ...
"Soon to be marketed as Connecticut's third casino, MGM Grand will complement the Grand Pequot and Rainmaker casinos in Mashantucket in much the same way casinos in close proximity in Las Vegas do, O'Brien said. A covered, moving walkway will link the Grand Pequot Casino to MGM Grand.
“Within a relatively short walk, (visitors) will have the opportunity to experience two great properties,” said O'Brien — not only for gaming, but to get a taste of celebrity-chef restaurants, a spa, a theater and retail stores." ...
"Located on the reservation of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the MGM Grand will nonetheless be a separate, stand-alone property with its own entrance, O'Brien said." ...
"Chris O'Connell, director of hotel operations at MGM Grand, provided a glimpse of the work in progress during an exclusive tour Tuesday as more than 1,000 construction workers toiled on every aspect of the edifice.
Everything is bigger at the Grand, O'Connell said, pointing out the comparisons between MGM Grand and Foxwoods.
From the back entrance, which at present is more accessible than the front, the visitor enters a cavernous ballroom — the biggest in the Northeast at 48,800 square feet, O'Connell said. The room can be configured 12 different ways to accommodate everything from trade shows to exhibits to banquets — but so far it is still in the throes of construction. (Foxwoods' Grand Pequot ballroom is 25,000 square feet.) The ballroom contributes to a total of 115,000 square feet of meeting space, tripling the 55,000 square feet now available at Foxwoods, for a grand total of 170,000 square feet.
The 4,000-seat theater is almost three times the size of Foxwoods' 1,400-seat Fox Theater and larger than the 3,200-seat Fox Arena.
O'Brien said designers have also put more focus on the non-gaming side of the business at MGM Grand." ...
"Also featured is a two-floor nightclub that O'Brien hopes will attract that younger crowd. A 5,500-square-foot outdoor swimming pool, at this stage in its development still a massive hole in the ground, overlooks the hills of Ledyard. But soon it will be surrounded by eight cabanas and two whirlpools.
The 26-story hotel has 825 guest rooms planned with cutting-edge technology, such as Apple iHome clock radios, flat panel televisions and wireless high-speed Internet access.
The hotel rooms — still without electricity — range from 565 deluxe rooms measuring 388 square feet each to two, 2,352-square-foot “chairmen's suites” with large living areas, wet bars, butler pantries and bedrooms. Rooms on the west side offer spectacular views of the Connecticut hills." ...
"In the end, O'Brien said he thinks MGM Grand can attract both the day-tripper and the New York and Boston traveler for longer stays, since Foxwoods' hotels are filled to near capacity." ...
for the complete story see:
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=01eaa39a-fbee-440e-b90
e-4746c7e0e90d
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment