Ocean Casino to Add 500 Rooms, 5 Restaurants, and High-Tech Mini Golf
Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City announces this year’s $50 million in projects as part of its seven year $270 million renovation plan.
Oceans Casino on the boarwalk announces new restaurants. © Jan Antonin Kolar, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- Ocean Casino Resort announced $50 million in capital spending for 2025.
- The casino will add more than 500 new Blu rooms and suites.
- The new expansion will bring five new restaurants.
- Other changes include a new 18 holes mini golf and expanding their Asian pit.
Ocean Casino Resort has been on a quarter-billion-dollar expansion plan for the last seven years. Since 2018, it has been budgeting between 40 and 50 million a year to build out and renovate the property in what has become a hyper-competitive Atlantic City market.
Now, in the home stretch, the company has finalized its plans for its 2025 budget, starting with finishing up its hotel project with 500 new Blu rooms and Suites.
They renovated their existing 12-story hotel tower in just 2022 and then built an additional 700 rooms over the next two years. This final stage will see them bring their total room count of both regular rooms and suites to 1860. Cost estimates are about $25 million.
This year also marks an exciting milestone as we complete the entire hotel with fully renovated guest rooms and suites.– Bill Callahan/Ocean Casino Resort, General Manager, Press Relase
They are teasing a new half-million dollar 18-hole mini golf course. But not just any golf course. This is 8,000 square feet of indoor putt-putt surrounded by the same immersive holograms and technology used by the Sphere in Las Vegas. We didn’t see any renderings, but this one sounds fun.
More Tables
More than $4 million will go towards a newly reimagined Asian Gaming area. This will allow Ocean’s to expand its current offering from 4,000 square feet to 8,000, increasing the number of games to more than 30. Expect to find Mini Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, and other Asian favorites. This is a lot of tables but pales compared to the 125 tables total you can find on the property.
Sammi Sweetheart, who you may or may not remember from more than eight seasons of Jersey Shore, will have a new chic boutique in the high-end fashion area, Shops At The Row. And while we aren’t exactly clear how this works, Ocean was the lucky beneficiary of a multi-million dollar US Army Corp of Engineer Program that “added” 20 additional acres of beachfront.
Five New Restaurants
We’ve saved the best for last, as Ocean announces five new restaurant venues. This will bring its fine dining total to five, accompanied by ten more casual offerings as well as six clubs and bars—hmm, we mean, nightlife experiences.
The ever-popular Italian restaurant Lascala Fire already has seven locations across Philly and South Jersey, but one more at Ocean’s will make a nice addition. Wood-fired pizzas and signature pasta dishes are all well and good, but let’s talk about the Lascala Fries.
Crispy, seasoned with Old Bay, then topped with bacon and lump crabmeat in a white cheese sauce, that’s a combo that will let you know you’re “down the shore”.
If you’re thinking that you must be doing something right to have seven Italian restaurants in close proximity to South Jersey, where Italian cooking is king, let’s talk about opening a Philly Cheese shop less than an hour from South Philly. We are big fans of their Wagyu Cheesesteaks, but we are wondering if Fusion hasn’t gone too far with the Cheesesteak eggrolls.
Blend will also open in the food court area and is an homage to every smoothie shop dotted around the Garden State; situated very near the pool; we’re betting these will be the summer’s go-to drinks while catching some rays.
Certainly, the biggest restaurant news was a new collaboration with Stephan Starr, which will see Ocean Casino Resort build out not one but two multi-million dollar dining havens. Starr’s restaurant group operates more than 30 different restaurants worldwide.
The Philadelphia native has earned the titles Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Restaurateur by the James Beard Foundation and received top honors from Bon Appetite, Zagat, and even a Michelin star at his restaurant Clocktower. No word yet on the menu or the concepts, but anyone who has ever eaten at a Starr restaurant will tell you that it is an experience not to be missed.
