It was just minutes before midnight on Thursday, when Chanel Rainey strode into the newly opened MGM National Harbor with her eyes wide open and a smile. Rainey held her iPhone aloft as she videotaped her maiden voyage through the crowded main gate of the thousands of excited guests to the stunning $1.4 billion resort on the banks of the Potomac River.
Rainey lives nearly an hour from Woodbridge, Va., and it didn’t matter that he was scheduled to work as a mail carrier for less than eight hours. There was no way he wouldn’t be here the night Rainey opened.
“Oh, I might not even be able to sleep tonight, but I don’t care,” said Rainey with a heartfelt smile. “I had to stay here because it’s been a long time. It’s amazing. Just look around. It’s beautiful. I always go to Vegas and Atlantic City, but now we have this in our backyard. I’ll be here every week. It’s amazing.”
Rainey was far from alone. Following a black tie and dress VIP party with about 5,000 guests earlier in the evening, MGM National Harbor officially opened just after 10:30 p.m., about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled on Thursday. Nearly all seats in 126 table games and 3,300 slot machines inside the 125,000-square-foot casino were filled in an hour. The same goes for choosing a 39-table poker room and more than 15 restaurants, bars, and lounges. 슬롯머신
By 11:15 p.m., casino officials had to stop people from entering, but the public did not return home. They had to wait in line for another wave of people to leave the building, but they kept waiting outside the doors in 20-degree wind-chill conditions to get a chance to come here just to open.
MGM promised that the new 23-acre property, located about 10 miles south of the White House, would “bring the taste of Vegas to America’s capital,” and that turned out to be more than just a clever marketing message. In fact, that’s exactly the answer.
If you scoop up and drop MGM National Harbor on the Las Vegas strip, it will also go pretty well with other MGM Resorts International properties like Bellagio, Arya Resorts & Casino at City Center, and the MGM Grand. Like other iconic resorts, MGM National Harbor flies you away with its elegance, unique attributes, and attention to detail.
It starts at the 15,000-square-foot conservatory under the main lobby created by acclaimed designer Ed Libby and will change from season to season. The current “Holiday Reflections” theme features a 60-foot Christmas tree, similar to Las Vegas’ famous Bellagio Conservatory, and 70,000 flowers, white carnations, orchids, and poinsettias.
Next to the conservatory is a 3,000-seat theater with famous musical performances that have made Las Vegas a regular, including Lionel Richie (Dec. 22), Bruno Mars (Dec. 27), and Cher’s March performance.
Downstairs from the theater, there is a high-end retail area where many people can walk around during a media event for “Sex in the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker to oversee the opening of her clothing, shoes, and accessories boutique.
The casino is the second-largest in the MGM family (with MGM Grand Hotel & Casino Las Vegas being the largest at 171,000 square feet) and offers state-of-the-art amenities such as adjustable chairs and slot machines with USB ports. The casino floor has two luxury lounges, Blossom and Felt, and at the far end of the building, you can enjoy stunning views of Alexandria, the Old Town of Washington Monument, the National Mall, the U.S. Capitol, the Potomac River, the National Harbor, and Potomac Plaza.
The vast area features a water fountain, fire pit, and al fresco dining table for the proper-named restaurant, the Tap Sports Bar, the property’s leading restaurant, and Fish, the first MGM seafood spot for local chef Jose Andres.
And we expect to hear more from the property’s F&B division in the coming weeks when Bellagio Patisserie reveals a floor-to-ceiling chocolate fountain of two tons of milk, dark chocolate and white chocolate that will shoot out £4,000.
It’s a 30-8-room, 24-story hotel that starts at $299 and offers spectacular views of the Potomac and includes an outdoor pool, a two-story 27,000-square-foot spa & salon with 11 treatment rooms, a full-service salon, a barber shop, a couple suite and a bish room.
But for all the luxurious amenities, MGM officials seem to be most proud of the impact MGM National Harbor will have on the community. In addition to creating 6,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent jobs, MGM officials told a news conference Thursday morning that nearly 50 percent of casino employees are residents of Prince George’s County, and the company boasts that it will spend between $60 million and $80 million annually on supplies for operating the casino.
Maryland, which currently has six casinos, Governor Larry Hogan attended a press conference and called the property “absolutely impressive,” adding that it would “make a difference in the region.”
Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International, said, “I have had a lot of conversations with the men and women who work here over the past few months. You can see the joy on their faces. Many of them used to drive an hour and a half each way to do something they liked, and now they can spend more time with their homes, friends, and family.
“We offered them the opportunity to be in their beloved city and state. We gave them the gift of time. That’s the legacy of this property. That’s the real magic.
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