Referring to Curtis Bashaw, the developer behind the Chelsea, Corzine said, "Curtis' vision to make Atlantic City more than a gaming resort is the most exciting thing happening here. Bashaw is a class act, and if he says the Chelsea is hot, hip, and cool, I believe him. Problem is, I don't think I'm any of those terms; but I still want to come!"
Corzine's seeming pretense of insecurity is a politician's ploy, of course, but for some tourists, this "upscaling" of Atlantic City may pose a problem. Fact is, ever since the city hit hard times in the 1970s and discovered gambling as its salvation, Atlantic City has survived on wooing the "four-hour patron," and developed a well-deserved reputation as awfully cheerful and cheerfully awful. As such, the elitist air blowing through the Chelsea hotel and the Water Club does augur something new.
'A trade-up experience'
"You won't be bombarded by locals here," said Noel Stevenson, spokesman for the Water Club, putting not too fine a point on the obvious snobbery this hotel is trying to exploit.
"The Water Club is a trade-up experience," said Mark Vanderwielen, the hotel's general manager. "We wanted to create something that was not a buzzing hive, like most casino hotels, but quietly cosmopolitan, that would really turn on what we call 'Atlantic City rejecters.' "
In this quiet cosmos, there's a bamboo forest behind the front desk and a Zen-like feel to the lobby, where water flows across a curvilinear wall, leading to a solarium with a fireplace. There are five swimming pools, including two outdoors, each heated, with infinity edging. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the hotel's 43 floors offer dazzling views of the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding bays. The color palette of the 800 rooms is turquoise, brown and beige, and there is an astonishing one-employee-per-room number of staff (800) to ensure that things are kept relentlessly tidy, not to mention that a small wooden tray of sweet, truffle-glazed grapes was left on my pillow each night.
One morning, I visited the hotel's 36,000-square-foot Immersion Spa. Immersion does not give treatments, but "experiences," I learn. All of these experiences are globally inspired. In the Japanese-style Hanoki soaking tubs, for example, one can loll about in waters infused with rare essences of Bourbon Vanilla, Massola Bark and Linden Blossom.
