At Chelsea Hotel, no casino but history & a helping of hip

"They're cheeky, don't you think? We wanted at least a little cheeky here," said Colleen Bashaw, smiling at the white ceramic parrots on the bedside tables of a 19th-floor "Chelsea Luxe" room at the new Chelsea hotel her brother, Curtis, and his Cape Advisors group have built in Atlantic City. It will have its official opening Aug. 1.

"We want to harken back to the 1950s and 1960s, what were probably the best days for Atlantic City - until now," said Colleen Bashaw, the interior designer for the new upscale hotel built on the shell of the old Teplitsky's - the first non-casino place of its ilk in town almost since, well, probably Teplitsky's.

It is hard to think of anyone at the Jersey Shore cheeky enough, save for Curtis Bashaw, to pull off something like the Chelsea. He is a nonpareil cocktail - one part savvy entrepreneur, one part historical legacy, one part suave hipster - poured over the political rocks in a nostalgic martini glass of sunny outlook.

At 47, Bashaw is the anti-Trump, the sunglassed and casual-tailored face of the hoped-for new Atlantic City.

The Chelsea, while not his ultimate dream, is a good step toward it. Originally, the hotel at Chelsea and Pacific was Teplitsky's, a kosher resort attracting mostly an upper-middle-class Jewish clientele in the post-World War II era.

As Atlantic City downshifted a bit in the 1970s, the Teplitsky family sold to Howard Johnson's, and Holiday Inn built a property on Chelsea Avenue toward the ocean side.

Now Bashaw has combined the two hotels - the Holiday Inn tower having the "Chelsea Luxe" rooms overlooking the Atlantic and the old Teplitsky/HoJo with "Chelsea Lite" rooms surrounding a heated-pool courtyard. The ground floor will have a Stephen Starr restaurant called Teplitsky's, with a diner ambience and lighter fare. Across from the pool, there will be a spa.

"Mani/pedi area. Hot stones. An up-to-date experience," said Bashaw, floating through the different spa areas, gesticulating enthusiastically.

The fifth floor of the old Holiday Inn space will be called Five, with a dance club, another Starr restaurant called Chelsea Prime, and an outdoor rooftop cabana area. Downstairs, the check-in area will have terrazzo floors, gigantic chandeliers evoking the 1950s and a large fireplace/library setting for cocktails and just plain people-viewing.

Colleen Bashaw has chosen chocolate brown as the color for the Luxe rooms, with all-white bedding and turquoise velvet curtains. Each room will have an old Atlantic City photograph or painted scene on the wall, flat-screen TVs, iPod docking stations, marble baths and as much ocean view as the old Holiday Inn windows will allow.

"We're looking, probably, at high $300 a night," said Curtis Bashaw. (In-season rates will range from $225-$450; off-season, $95-$275.)

"I really think that Atlantic City is Las Vegas 12 years ago. I don't mean people will stop going to the Hamptons, but I think the Chelsea will help attract a young urban crowd from New York and Philadelphia that is looking for a new place."

Bashaw seems the man to provide it. His Jersey Shore cred is high, but slightly offbeat. His grandfather, Carl McIntyre, was a prominent evangelical minister who owned the Christian Admiral and Congress Hall hotels in Cape May.

In his early 30s, with a Wharton business degree, Bashaw headed to Cape May and renovated the old Virginia Hotel there. Then he took over his grandfather's properties, selling the Christian Admiral to finance the renovation of Congress Hall, which has been attracting a somewhat hipper crowd over the last half-dozen years.

He was an adviser to New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, and for two years was executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which oversees the distribution of casino-based taxes toward development, mostly in Atlantic City. Since resigning from that job three years ago, he has been looking for investments with Cape Advisors. He and backers have an option on a site a few blocks south of the Chelsea for a casino project that is in the planning stages.

With the addition of 800 rooms at The Water Club, the non-casino hotel that opened next to the Borgata last month, and the 331 rooms at the Chelsea, the city is now about two-thirds of the way to its goal of 25,000 rooms to attract more conventions and other overnight stays.

That more of these rooms are classified as "luxury" accommodations is good, analysts say, because it positions Atlantic City closer to Las Vegas than to smaller resorts or to slots-only places such as Pennsylvania.

Bashaw claims to be unworried about the crumbling set of old motels around the Chelsea - the Martinique, the Days Inn, the Flamingo - and the ubiquitous "Cash for Gold" signs just yards away on either side along Pacific Avenue.

"It is part of the charm, so to speak, those young adults from New York see in Atlantic City," he said, rolling his eyes just a little bit. "But seriously, someone has to start somewhere. The Borgata showed that. They upped the ante for casinos. Now there is the Pier at Caesars and more shopping and better restaurants. The Chelsea is another step." *

Chelsea Hotel, 111 S. Chelsea Ave., Atlantic City, 1-800-548-3030, www.thechelsea-ac.com.