Ahead of its opening in the summer, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City reportedly held an invitation-only job fair yesterday in hopes of finding employees to fill some 3,000 expected positions.

According to a report from the Associated Press via the New York Daily News newspaper, the Atlantic City venue due to be run by a subsidiary of American casino operator Hard Rock International invited around 1,600 past employees of the former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort to attend the event and was surprised when some 1,400 turned up.

“This is the first brush stroke of the renaissance,” Matt Harkness, President for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City, reportedly told the newspaper following the event.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City was formerly known as the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort until it was closed in 2016 amid a dispute between billionaire owner Carl Icahn and the local chapter of the UNITE HERE trade union over canceled pension benefits and health insurance. It was subsequently purchased by Boardwalk 1000, which encompasses Orlando-based Hard Rock International as well as private investors Joe Jingoli and Jack Morris, for $50 million and is currently undergoing approximately $500 million in renovations ahead of its planned re-launch.

When finished, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City, which sits on a 17-acre seaside Boardwalk site and will be operated by an entity known as HR Atlantic City, is expected to feature around 150,000 sq ft of events space and a range of restaurants alongside a casino offering about 2,200 slots and 125 gaming tables.

“Hard Rock [International] is a good company and it recognizes the fact that the [Trump] Taj Mahal [Casino Resort] had an exceptional workforce,” Bob McDevitt, Local 54 President for UNITE HERE, reportedly told the New York Daily News. “Those workers gave excellent service for decades.”

Harkness reportedly agreed and told the newspaper that the former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort workers possess ‘institutional knowledge’ that is ‘very valuable’ to the new owner of the property.