On Monday morning Caesars Entertainment released a statement saying it will be doing a complete makeover on its Marina Tower, part of Harrah’s Atlantic City resort casino complex. The 16-story building has 416 rooms and was opened in 1997. Caesar added that once the tower is complete, it will be rebranded to Laguna Tower.
According to one article appearing in the casino.org site, approximately $24 million has been set aside for the renovation with each room expected to cost roughly $57,700. Harrah’s was the first casino to be opened in Atlantic City, but the first to be situated off Boardwalk in the Marina District. Trump Castle, which is now known as the Golden Nugget was opened 5 years later and Borgata 2003.
In 2015, Caesar announced bankruptcy which has been preventing it from putting more money into the Atlantic City properties. However, in 2017 it came out of bankruptcy protection and since then it has been really trying hard to keep up with the market trends. Despite this, it seems it might not be out of the woods yet, but again there is some hope it would.
It is rumored that Caesar is in the process of changing ownership. Apparently, it is being bought by Eldorado Resorts for $17.3 billion whereby $8.5 billion will be in cash and shares while the rest $8.8 billion will be paying the current Caesar’s debt. The huge transaction may be completed by the first six months of 2020 and is expected to result in the largest casino owner in the United States. Well, this is arguably depending on whether the states will remain the same because things might as well change based on how a company attracts investors.
This is the second renovation announcement by Harrah’s. The first one was in the fall of 2018 where $56 million was expected to be spent in the makeover of the casino resort Harbor tower, which has 507 rooms. Together with Harrah’s, Caesar also owns and runs Bally’s and another casino by name Caesar.
The $24 million it has announced for the renovation of Harrah’s is part of its total $300 million which is to be spent in the makeover of all its casinos in Atlantic City. The total earnings for Harrah’s from January through November are $286.3 million. Despite this being a 7.2 percent decrease in the earnings from the same period last year, it is still ranked number 3 of the nine casinos in Atlantic.
Borgata, owned by MGM and is the casino’s toughest competitor, ranks first with total earnings of $654.5 million. Hard Rock comes in second with total earnings of $298.1 million. Borgata is considered the richest casino in town.
To most customers, the renovation could not have come at a better time. Reviews on the casinos’ homepage is not so encouraging with one of the customers have complained of a semen stain on the couch. Its ratings are 3.8/5, which is behind Borgata’s 4.3/5 and Golden Nugget 4.0/5.
