GAMING

MGM Grand Plans Major Atlantic City Project: In its first move into the nation’s second-largest casino market, MGM Grand Inc. said it plans to invest $700 million to build what would be one of Atlantic City’s largest hotel-casino complexes on 30 acres of Boardwalk property. Las Vegas-based MGM Grand, controlled by tycoon Kirk Kerkorian, said the project would also include a 335,000-square-foot entertainment and retail complex on adjacent land owned and to be developed by Forest City Ratner Cos. Alex Yemenidjian, president and chief operating officer of MGM Grand, said in an interview in New York that he foresees an explosion of growth that will bring Atlantic City from 9,000 hotel rooms to as many as 25,000 rooms over the next five years. Such growth, together with the pending expansion of the airport and other infrastructure improvements, would give the city the critical mass necessary to attract gamblers from around the country, he said.