Bethlehem slots palace ready to open where steel once was king

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Atlantic City may have the beach, but this Lehigh Valley city will soon have the Sands.

A month from today, the first phase of the Sands Casino-Resort is scheduled to open on the site of the long-shuttered Bethlehem Steel Works. With $743 million already invested by its owner, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (whose holdings include the ultra-luxe Venetian and Palazzo properties on the Vegas Strip), it is far and away the most expensive slots parlor Pennsylvania has yet seen.

Despite such a huge investment, the Sands, which will have a "soft opening" May 22 (the grand opening festivities are set for early June), will not exactly be what company officials envisioned when Las Vegas Sands was awarded a gaming license three years ago.

Initial plans called for the simultaneous opening of the 139,000-square-foot gambling area, a 300-room hotel (featuring 50,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space) and a shopping mall boasting between 35 and 40 stores. But the ongoing economic crisis forced the Sands to roll out in phases instead of all at once.

"The steel frame is up for the hotel and the shell of the mall is up," said Bob DeSalvio, the casino's president. "We'll wait for the economy to improve [to finish them]."

Greeting first-day visitors will be 3,000 state-of-the-art slot machines, including electronic versions of blackjack, roulette and Three-Card Poker. Patrons also will be able to avail themselves of two lounges and four restaurants, including Emeril's Chop House, the first Northeastern U.S. outpost for superstar chef Emeril Lagasse.

DeSalvio - a former executive of the now-demolished Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City (which was never owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp.) - explained that 2,000 more machines and a third cocktail lounge will debut Nov. 22. However, he added, there will be no set date for completion of the hotel and mall "until we can get a handle on the economy and credit markets."

Although the economy caused the project to be scaled back, it still has provided a shot-in-the-arm for the city that has yet to fully recover from the 1995 closing of Bethlehem Steel--the town's financial and cultural heart.

"There are 1,000 construction jobs and another 1,000 permanent jobs," said DeSalvio. "And of the construction money spent, about 80 percent [went to] firms from the surrounding area."

The Sands complex certainly doesn't look like any other casino in Pennsylvania - or anywhere else. Much of the Bethlehem Steel infrastructure remains, including a huge, seven-story machine shop that provided weaponry for American battleships, and the otherworldly blast furnaces that for decades lit up the night sky over the Lehigh Valley (and which will figure prominently in the June 9 opening ceremonies).

Inside the casino - which was built from scratch on the site where the raw iron ore was once stored - the visual theme is continued by the industrial-motif ceilings and even the names of the three lounges: Molten, Coiled and Infusion. Each is a nod to the property's former life.

Perhaps one of the most interesting features is the modest neighborhood clearly visible from the Sands' main entrance. The casino's story in this regard is the exact opposite of those planned for Philly.

Rather than do their best to frustrate construction, the residents fully embraced the project.

"They were our biggest supporters, because so many jobs are going to [them]," said DeSalvio.

While the Sands will be the Lehigh Valley's first legal gambling den, its president sees his customer base extending beyond the one million people living within 25 miles of the casino.

"There are 17.2 million people living within 75 miles," said DeSalvio. "We expect 50 percent of our business to come from North Jersey and the New York metro market."

That, of course, won't help Atlantic City gaming industry officials to sleep any better - as their turf continues to be battered by competition from Pennsylvania.

"It's just another punch in the gut," said Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business, an industry publication, about the expected effect of the Sands on New Jersey's gambling realm. "It'll be another nail in the coffin." *