The first guitar placed outside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino had a misspelling.
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City is placing its trademark 60-foot tall guitar outside in preparation for its June 28 grand opening. The guitar, a massive likeness of the Les Paul guitar first sold by Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952, is the symbol of the Hard Rock Cafe and the Hard Rock Casino.
It is the second such guitar placed outside the Hard Rock Atlantic City. Last week, the company installed a 30-foot Hard Rock guitar facing the intersection of Route 30 and Virginia Avenue.
Hopefully, the second guitar installation goes better than the first. Once the iconic signage was placed on the building’s side, it was realized that the word “Rhythm” was misspelled on the guitar’s rhythm and treble switch.
The extra “E”, creating the word “Rhythem”, had to be removed after the spell check. Rhythm is one of the tricky words to spell in the English language, but Hard Rock has been at this a while, so it was an embarrassment which needed to be removed before opening night.
$500 Million Renovation
The addition of the guitars is one of the final touches to a $500 million renovation of the old Trump Taj Mahal building. Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, bought the Atlantic City resort last year from Carl Icahn.
The Trump Taj Mahal was not in the condition Trump Plaza was in during its final few years, but it was in real need of renovation when Hard Rock bought the property. Carl Icahn originally promised a $100 million renovation when he bought Trump Taj Mahal, but later backed off that suggestion after the North Jersey casino referendum appeared on the November 2016 ballot.
2100 Slot Machines and 120 Gaming Tables
Now that the expansion and renovation is completed, the gaming space will include 119,657 square-foot, as well as 120 gaming tables, 2,100 slots, and 8 restaurants. The Hard Rock Cafe restaurant, one of those 8 eateries, will feature 22,360-square-foot of space with 416 seats and two dining rooms, two stages, several bars, a nightclub, and a seasonal patio.
Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen will be on hand for the grand opening. In April 2018, Jim Allen announced that June 28 at 12pm would be the opening. Since then, Ocean Resort Casino announced it would open on the same date — in this case, one hour later at 1pm.
Hard Rock’s 200 Musical Events
Music is going to be a theme of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The casino plans 200 musical events within the first calendar year of opening. It is part of a strategy to make non-gaming revenues a major part of the financial picture.
Having 200 concerts a year also creates full-time jobs for hundreds of event staff and park attendants. While other Atlantic City casino executives have fretted over the addition of 2 new casinos to the existing 7-casino Atlantic City landscape, the opening of Hard Rock and Ocean Resort boosts Atlantic City job figures significantly.
Jim Allen visited local groups to point out the job creation his new casino would create in the city. Atlantic City has a population of 40,000 people, so adding several thousand jobs is a huge boost to city revenues and to the overall jobs market. In 2014 alone, Atlantic City lost 8000 casino jobs and 9000 jobs in all, which led to the city’s bankruptcy and takeover by New Jersey financial overseers. Adding two new casinos, if they are substainable, is a major boost to AC’s recovery.
Ocean Resort Casino Grand Opening
Ocean Resort Casino’s grand opening remained in question until a few days ago. Bruce Deifik’s casino operation, which is located where the Revel Casino once was, had a hearing on June 21 to determine whether Ocean Resort Casino would receive a gaming license.
After an emotional day of hearings, Bruce Deifik’s group received confirmation that it would be licensed and able to open on the 28th. Ocean Resort Casino has partnership deals with Hyatt Corporation and William Hill USA, so it had the credentials and associations needed to impress the Casino Control Commission of New Jersey.
