The sultry, exotic side of Havana is making its way to the Atlantic City Boardwalk in the form of a $245 million, grand-scale dining, entertainment, retail, and spa complex called The Quarter at Tropicana Casino and Resort, set to open in March. The largest such complex in the city, it will try to capture the sophisticated and romantic ambience of Old Havana and will house an eclectic mix of tenants, who were revealed at a recent gala ceremony. Among them: Brooks Brothers, the city's first IMAX theater, and Carmine's, a popular Italian restaurant making its first foray outside of Manhattan.

The new Tropicana tower will also include 502 guest rooms, making the hotel New Jersey's largest once again. The project is is the biggest nongaming expansion in the history of Atlantic City. Built with the needs of groups in mind, the tower will include 45,000 square feet of new meeting space. Each guest room will have high-speed Internet hookups, safes, and refrigerators.

The Tropicana currently hosts around 350 meetings a year, representing 50,000 room nights. It is hoped that that number will increase to 85,000 room nights when the new tower opens.

When the expansion is complete, the entire Tropicana will cover 14 acres with a total of 2,127 rooms and 122,000 square feet of meeting space.

With three times more dining, entertainment, retail, and spa outlets than any other casino in Atlantic City, the expanded Tropicana will feature some of the most well-known and successful brands in their categories. Regional restaurants include Philadelphia's Cuba Libre and Las Vegas' Red Square, which will join national restaurants P.F. Chang's China Bistro. And Murray Bros. Caddyshack will debut in Atlantic City in The Quarter. www.tropicana.net