Mount Airy Resort & Casino

Owner: Mount Airy #1 LLC

Project value: $360 million

Completed: October 2007

Architect: Hemmler + Camayd Architects

VLT’s: 3,000

Mount Airy #1 LLC started planning Pennsylvania’s first freestanding resort and casino – even before securing a gaming license. The owner hired our team as construction manager with a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) to oversee the fast-track construction of this bold $360 million property. We worked with the owner to initiate an aggressive approach using concurrent design and construction. Even before aspects of the design were finalized, construction proceeded.

Nearly 550 acres were preserved as green space. The luxury facility features full-service amenities to attract tourists as well as gaming enthusiasts. Phase I of the project focused on a 200-room luxury resort hotel, a gaming and entertainment complex with 3,000 slot machines, four restaurants, two live entertainment lounges, an expanded 18-hole championship golf course, spa, retail shops and a covered parking facility. The 191,906 sq. ft. hotel tower itself had a center seven-story tower flanked by two, six-story wings. Phase II resulted in an additional 200 luxury hotel rooms and expanded conference, entertainment and parking facilities.

Throughout construction, the owner requested several finish changes, as well as scope changes. Examples of these were: reconfiguring the back of house to meet the ever-changing needs of the owner and the facility at no cost increase to the owner; as well as ensuring finishes met the four-star goals. In the end, the project came in nearly $4 million below the GMP amount due to accurate target value designs implemented, painstaking scoping and purchasing by our estimating staff, as well as budget oversight by our project management team. Construction began in June 2006 and was completed in October 2007.

In April 2015, Mount Airy Resort & Casino was awarded its fourth consecutive AAA Four Diamond Rating. The resort & casino was the first in Pennsylvania to have received this prominent award.