/Press of Atlantic City/ - ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - It's been a landmark year in casino development in Atlantic City, as one casino opened a hotel expansion, two others topped off hotel construction projects and two others broke ground on hotel expansions. And this is just the beginning.

In the coming year, Showboat Casino & Hotel will open its new hotel tower, Resorts Casino Hotel and Tropicana Casino and Resort will top off new hotel towers, Caesars Atlantic City will begin building a Monopoly-themed retail pier and the Walk, a non-casino (but half casino-funded) retail center in Midtown, will open. The billion-dollar Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa will also open.

The following year, in 2004, the Caesars Altantic City, Resorts and Tropicana expansions will be completed.

When this three-year construction wave is over, casinos will have spent $1.8 billion on major projects. Following is the status of major expansion projects under way or planned:

The Aztar's flagship Tropicana is building a $225 million hotel and retail expansion scheduled to open by March 1, 2004.

Workers have enclosed Borgata's 43-story hotel tower and are working on interior finishes. Hotel rooms through the 10th floor have been furnished. Landscaping work has begun. The $1 billion project, the city's first new casino hotel in 13 years, is scheduled to open summer 2003. Colony Capital Workers are completing the foundation for Resorts' $115-million, 28-story hotel, tower scheduled in May 2004.

Harrah's Atlantic City is completing the last major element of a $200 million expansion, a new gaming area for 450 slots scheduled to open this weekend.