LV companies seek AC permits

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 11:53 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Mirage Resorts Inc. and Boyd Gaming Corp. sought permission Wednesday to begin more than $100 million of infrastructure work on their Atlantic City hotel-casinos.

The companies applied to New Jersey for approval of their plans for roadways, utilities, landscaping and other improvements on a 150-acre site in the Marina District Mirage obtained under an agreement with Atlantic City.

If approved as expected, the filings under New Jersey's Coastal Area Facilities Review Act would be another major step in the plans by Mirage and Boyd to build the first new hotel-casinos in Atlantic City in more than a decade.

Mirage intends to build a $1.25 billion resort, Le Jardin, at the site and has already added 1.2 million tons of clean soil and helped finance relocation of city-owned buildings to other areas and construction of highway extensions to the site.

Boyd and Mirage are also joint venture partners in construction of the Borgata, a $750 million Italian-themed hotel casino on a 25-acre parcel at the site.

Boyd Chairman William S. Boyd said the CAFRA permit "is an important milestone that will enable us to establish our construction timeline. We intend to break ground in the second quarter of 2000 and expect to open in 2002."

Mirage's Le Jardin is expected to open the following year. MGM Grand Inc. also plans to build a $700 million hotel-casino in Atlantic City.