John Matthews
WMAL.com
OXON HILL — (WMAL) People in Prince George’s County have been waiting years for the economic generator that is the MGM National Harbor resort to open. Now they finally have a target date.
MGM Resorts has announced the $1.4 billion dollar hotel and casino will debut on December 8th – just in time for the holidays – and open to hotel guest two days later, on December 10th.
Guests accustomed to visiting MGM’s properties in Las Vegas, where hotel rooms are plentiful and complimentary lodgings are relatively easy to come by, might find a comp at National Harbor hard to come by. The Oxon Hill property has about 300 rooms – compared to 5,600 at MGM’s flagship by the same name in Las Vegas. Rooms at National Harbor will run from $399 to $599 per night.
There’s still plenty of work to do for MGM to be ready for opening night.
“Construction will continue over the next 30 to 60 days,” says resort’s General Manager, Bill Boasberg. “We’re also in the process of finishing all of our hiring. I think we have 350 employees on staff, [and] we’ve made offers to over 2,200, so we have a few more to go,” he adds.
The resort is opening behind schedule – By law, it was obligated to open in August, but delays in construction prompted MGM to ask for – and receive – an extension from the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission in order to open closer to year’s end.
Even if you never visit the resort, you will feel its effects – especially if you commute on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Vehicle traffic to National Harbor is expected to double with the casino’s opening, and that could impact traffic on the Beltway nearby. Both the Harbor developer and the casino itself are working on $10 million in road improvements to make ingress and egress easier for customers.
The to-do list for resort officials is daunting, but Boasberg is confident they’ll be ready on time.
“With any opening, obviously, we have the challenges, but our company has a lot of experience in running large-scale integrated resorts, and we’re confident we’ve done it before and we’re confident we’ll do it again,” he says.
Reservations are now available. You can make them at 844-646-6847.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: MGM Resorts)
