Expansion of Atlantis helps retain Safari Club convention

As John Farahi shows visitors around the $50 million expansion of Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, he's almost giddy with excitement.

But Farahi says he'll probably feel even greater satisfaction with the completion late this year of the $12.5 million skybridge that will tie

Atlantis to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

That project, he says, benefits the entire community as it plays a role in retaining the Safari Club International convention that is the single biggest convention in the Reno-Sparks area each year.

"This is not all gravy for us," says Farahi, the general manager of

Atlantis as well as chairman and chief executive officer of its

publicly traded parent company. "We are helping the community bring in the meetings and the conventions that benefit everyone."

As Safari Club makes plans for future conventions in Reno, it wrestles with two issues, says Ellen Oppenheim, president and CEO of the Reno-Sparks Conventions and Visitors Authority.

One on hand, the group keeps a close eye on the availability of air service to bring attendees 23,000 of them in 2008 to Reno from

around the world.

A second question, she says, has been the availability of show space as the club has outgrown the convention center. The new meeting and convention rooms at the expanded Atlantis, along with possible exhibit space in the skyway itself, helps resolve that issue.

The 116,000-square-foot expansion at the southeast side of the Atlantis property adds about 10,000 square feet of gaming space, a 4,000-square-foot sports book, a new poker room, and a New York-style deli that was created after numerous trips to the East Coast by Atlantis executives who wanted to get the details right.

"This has exceeded our expectations," Farahi says as he looks around the new facilities. "It took two years of planning to prepare for one year of construction, and I knew it was going to be fabulous."

More important for the convention business is the addition of about 27,000 square feet of ballroom and meeting room space in the second floor of the addition. The skybridge from the convention center opens into that new space.

Says Oppenheim: "Meeting planners have been very enthusiastic about the skybridge."

Next up for the Atlantis is a steady upgrade of the existing portions of the property to bring them up to the aesthetic standards of the new addition.

And that means less of the jungle-paradise look and more of the subtle chocolate-and-beige decor that dominates the addition.

"People are more demanding in their expectations," says Farahi. "We are

continuing to evolve, to become more open and more sophisticated."

The upgrade work, the company has said, is expected to extend over

several quarters.

Monarch Casino & Resort, the Reno-based parent company of Atlantis, financed the expansion and upgrades through use of cash reserves and by tapping a $50 million credit line provided by a consortium of banks led by Wells Fargo.