ATLANTIC CITY - Kevin DeSanctis stood in the middle of a vast, hectic construction site and began talking about things as though they already existed.”We’re actually standing in the middle of the poker room,” he said, gesturing to an empty space on the lower floors of a hotel tower that eventually will rise to a breathtaking 700 feet. “Over there is the theater. And that’s the casino.”

The 5,000-seat theater will be a venue for big-name performers and their adoring fans, but right now it’s a steel skeleton occupied only by construction workers in hard hats. The casino is a long way from getting its slot machines and blackjack tables. Currently, it is a plot of sandy land.

It takes a lot of imagination to believe DeSanctis and his company, Revel Entertainment Group, will be able to complete their project in what has become the country’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Adding to the challenges of such an immense undertaking was the loss of three key Revel executives in a summer plane crash.

But rising to new heights every day is Revel’s $2 billion megaresort - a mini-city anchored by a casino, twin hotel towers that will be the tallest buildings in town and a mall-like 500,000 square feet of upscale retail shops, restaurants and entertainment attractions. Also planned is Atlantic City’s first Las Vegas-style wedding chapel.

 The 20-acre site, overlooking the Boardwalk between New Jersey and Metropolitan avenues, is crawling with activity. Hovering overhead are 11 massive construction cranes that lift everything from steel beams to large slabs of concrete. Cement trucks, tractor-trailers and earth-moving equipment add to the congestion. Complementing the machinery is an army of about 800 to 1,000 construction workers. The project ensures employment for members of southern New Jersey’s labor unions. Later on, the work force will grow closer to 5,000.

“This is great for the city. It’s a huge job. All of the local unions have been fantastic,” said Patrick Delaney, senior project manager for Tishman Construction, the company building the casino for Revel.

Besides its employment benefits, Revel’s project offers the most hope for a down-on-its-luck casino town. This will be Atlantic City’s only new casino for at least the next few years. It is supposed to be the type of must-see attraction that will draw throngs of customers eager to spend money in the casino, the restaurants and the retail shops.

Hurt by the sluggish economy and competition from Pennsylvania’s slot parlors, the Atlantic City market has suffered a 6.3 percent decline in gaming revenue this year. A 15.1 percent revenue decline in September was the biggest monthly drop ever in the city’s 30-year history of casino gambling.

A year ago, the Revel project was supposed to be one of three or four gigantic new casino hotels that would redefine the city’s skyline. Revel got started on Nov. 20, 2007, and remains the only new casino to break ground. The others have been stopped cold by a global credit crunch that has dried up financing for construction.

Revel also is vulnerable to the credit crisis. The company still must venture into the shaky lending markets for funding to complete its project. In the meantime, construction is being financed by Revel’s partner, Morgan Stanley, the venerable Wall Street investment bank that owns the casino site.

“We’re not immune to the credit issue,” DeSanctis said. “We’re not out of the woods. We’re just like everybody else.”

Morgan Stanley bought the land in 2006 for $70 million and has poured about $300 million into construction so far. But even a financial colossus such as Morgan Stanley doesn’t want to pick up the project’s estimated $2 billion cost, so a search is under way for investment partners.

“We are in discussions with various partners to provide debt or equity backing for the casino,” Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jennifer Sala said.

Although the project doesn’t appear to be in jeopardy, DeSanctis said Revel will have to decide soon whether to build both hotel towers or just one. Financing shortages could force it to hold off completing the second tower. Revel has been saying all along that the casino may open with only one 1,900-room tower, with its twin to follow when there is enough market demand.

“I’d love to get it built at the same time as the first tower,” said DeSanctis, Revel’s chairman and chief executive officer. “But we haven’t made that decision yet. We will hold off as long as we can. Part of this is about keeping things moving.”

Despite questions about financing, the project is progressing at rapid speed. Completion originally was expected in 2011, then was revised to Sept. 1, 2010. Now it has been pushed up again, to July 2010, DeSanctis said.

Perhaps most remarkable was Revel’s ability to recover from the deaths of three executives who perished in a July 31 plane crash while en route to a business meeting to discuss the casino with a Minnesota-based glass manufacturer. The tragedy cost Revel, a small company, 40 percent of its development team.

“They were talented, and they were fun to work with. They were good people,” DeSanctis said of the late Revel executives Tony Craig, Chris Daul and Lawrence “Chip” Merrigan.

Also killed in the crash were Karen Sandland, a project manager for Tishman Construction, and Marc Rosenberg and Alan Barnett, executives with APG International, a New Jersey glass supplier for Revel.

“That was a really tough time,” DeSanctis recalled. “It’s the human loss that counts the most. The project is just the project. These are just buildings. But as difficult as it may be, now we have to focus on our work and get them done.”

pressofatlanticcity.com