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PCMACONVENE.ORG FEBRUARY 2016 PCMA CONVENE 115
improvements. After a $1-million upgrade of
the facility’s wireless and technology systems,
it now offers free Wi-Fi to attendees. Outside,
a new digital marquee sign welcomes groups.
New equipment has been added for meetings and events, including tables, staging,
and lighting. Modified work rules have eliminated stand-by labor for electrical services,
and sustainability initiatives, including the
largest single roof-mounted solar array in
the U.S., address everything from energy
usage to recycling. In total, the convention
center has close to 500,000 square feet of
contiguous exhibit space, 45 meeting rooms,
and 32,000 square feet of prefunction space.
New developments in the entertainment
space are springing up as well. The Play-
ground, formerly known as The Pier Shops
at Caesars, offers a 464,000-square-foot
venue with high-end retail shopping, eight
live-entertainment options, and several res-
taurants. New attractions are coming down
the pipeline — plans to build the Polercoaster,
a vertical roller coaster, have been approved;
and construction is expected to start on a
220-foot-tall observation wheel at Steel Pier
early this year.
Plans to revive the city’s shuttered casino
hotels are also in the works. At press time,
Bart Blatstein, CEO of Tower Investments Inc.,
was in the process of purchasing Showboat
Casino Hotel, and the Casino Reinvestment
Development Authority has approved a plan
to let Golden Nugget Atlantic City turn an
unused restaurant into two 2,400-square-
foot villas.
For more information: Meet AC –
Atlantic City Convention Visitor Bureau —
meetinac.com
All aboard The artery of Atlantic City since
it was built in 1870, the Atlantic City Boardwalk
was the first boardwalk in the U.S., and runs
for five miles along the Atlantic Ocean. Work
has begun on an extension of the inlet section
of the Boardwalk to Gardner’s Basin, currently
undergoing a $50-million redevelopment.
Show time One of Atlantic City’s most historic
and stunning venues, Boardwalk Hall opened
in 1929 as the city’s first convention center. Its
141,000-square-foot main arena has hosted
entertainment acts from the Beatles to Justin
Bieber, and its 23,100-square-foot Adrian Phillips
Ballroom can hold up to 3,200 guests.
Not so average Artist Jonathan Borofsky’s
flying fish sculptures hang suspended in the
90-foot-tall atrium lobby of the Atlantic City
Convention Center. The Pennsylvania Society
of Architects gave the facility an Architectural
Excellence Design Award when it opened in 1997.
