House of Blues co-founder Dan Ackroyd was on hand to help Mohegan
Sun executives and Tribal members break ground on a major new expansion
at the Connecticut casino last week.
The
press conference, officiated by Mitchell Etess and Mohegan Tribal
Chairman Bruce "Two Dogs" Boszum, took place on the rooftop
of the Winter Garage overlooking the construction site. In addition
to Dan Aykroyd, other guests included David Mexico of the Rockwell
Group of New York; Debbie Eybers, president of House of Blues; Jim
Jablonski, chief operating officer of House of Blues; Aidan Scully,
senior vice president of House of Blues; and Jim Koplik, Live Nation's
chairman of the Northeast Region.
Included in the expansion is a major new
HoB-themed hotel featuring approximately 920 rooms, 261 of which
will be themed House of Blues rooms. Guests staying in the House
of Blues-themed rooms will be registered independently of other
guests.
In addition to themed hotel rooms, the expansion
will provide Mohegan Sun with a major new music venue, restaurant,
retail outlet with House of Blues memorabilia, and special events
room. Live Nation will own and operate a 1,500-capacity House of
Blues music venue, joining three other extant venues at the casino,
allowing them to accommodate anywhere from 300 to 10,000 guests.
When
completed, the new expansion will add more than 1.4 million square
feet to Mohegan Sun's existing structure and has a target opening
date set for October of 2010.
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