Morning Headlines: SugarHouse Begins $164M Expansion
SugarHouse photo courtesy sameold210 via Flickr.
You may not remember it now, but when SugarHouse opened in 2010, the casino was not quite finished. Yes, the facility was built, but there were further plans for expansion. After years of legal battles and delays, executives (and local pols) broke ground yesterday. The Inquirer’s Harold Brubaker has all the details.
The expansion, expected to open next year, will more than double the size of SugarHouse, to 260,000 square feet from 108,000 square feet, not including a 600,000-square-foot, seven-story parking garage that will give poker players, in particular, quick access to the tables.
The expansion will increase SugarHouse’s gambling floor to 85,000 square feet from 50,000 square feet. That will allow the company to operate 30 more table games, 400 more slot machines, and a 30-table poker room.
General Manager Wendy Hamilton tells Brubaker that most of the expansion will focus on “non-gambling attractions” like restaurants and a 30,000 square foot event space with Ben Franklin views. SugarHouse also says the expansion comes with plans for 500 new jobs.
Greg Carlin, chief executive at the casino, noted that the expansion is coming while the industry has hit a rough patch in Atlantic City.
“There is currently too much gaming capacity in the Northeast, but we made a promise to Philadelphia that one day we would expand and make SugarHouse Casino bigger and much better,” he said.
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