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\n\tThe Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, a nongaming hotel that was built in the 1920s and recently refurbished, is shown Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, a nongaming hotel that was built in the 1920s and recently refurbished, is shown Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014<\/p>\n
\tBy Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/p>\n
\tATLANTIC CITY \u2014 The Claridge is the past and the future of the Boardwalk.<\/p>\n
\tThe 1920s-era hotel was once the toast of Atlantic City, sitting at the famous intersection of Boardwalk and Park Place. It earned the market\u2019s fourth gaming license, back when developer Del Webb owned the building.<\/p>\n
\tBut the Claridge hasn\u2019t seen a slot machine handle pull or a toss of the dice since 2005.<\/p>\n
\tPark Place Entertainment bought the property in 2001, shut down the gaming in 2005 and used the 500-room Claridge as a Bally\u2019s Atlantic City annex.<\/p>\n
\tSome of the property\u2019s unused slot machines sat collecting dust for nine years.<\/p>\n
\tThe building\u2019s fortunes changed Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n
\tFlorida hotel developer TJM Properties paid $12.5 million for the historic hotel and spent millions more to convert the brick building into a boutique-style nongaming property.<\/p>\n
\tDuring the summer months, Claridge guests spent anywhere from $100 a night at midweek, to $300 a night on weekends to stay at the refurbished hotel, which didn\u2019t even have its own restaurant. Malcolm\u2019s, a first floor lobby lounge and bar that took over the former casino cage area, doubled as a morning coffee stand.<\/p>\n
\tThe hotel lobby was restyled and is dotted with historic Atlantic City photos. The 25,000-square-foot convention area has a new shine.<\/p>\n
\tOther changes are forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\tA new restaurant \u2014 The 20s \u2014 will open in October. Entertainment offerings will be upgraded.<\/p>\n
\tAs for the Claridge\u2019s two-level casino space?<\/p>\n
\tThe 30,000 square feet casino area on the ground floor is being converted into a high-end art gallery to feature some 50 artists. The second floor will house a children\u2019s museum.<\/p>\n
\tIn a market where three hotel-casinos have closed since February, a fourth is scheduled to shut down next week, and a fifth is threatened with being shuttered by November, praise has been lavished on TJM owner Terence McCarthy for repurposing an old building and maintaining 130 jobs.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe Claridge is an historic building, and we\u2019re finding that our customers like the nongaming atmosphere,\u201d said Claridge spokeswoman Sherry Amos.<\/p>\n
\tGaming revenue in Atlantic City has dropped 60 percent since 2007, but hotel occupancy ran in the high 90 percent range all summer. The closures of Revel, Showboat, Atlantic Club and next week\u2019s shutdown of Trump Plaza will have removed more than 5,800 rooms from the market this year.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAtlantic City needs rooms,\u201d Resorts Atlantic City President Mark Giannantonio said Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019re entering a slow period, but the summer months are busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGaming leaders have hopes that TJM will work its magic on the Atlantic Club, which closed in February. There are hopes that the 801-room hotel-casino, developed as the original Golden Nugget Atlantic City by Steve Wynn, would reopen as a nongaming hotel, removing a eyesore from the Boardwalks\u2019 southern end.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars Entertainment Corp. Chairman Gary Loveman said the challenge facing Atlantic City is in reusing empty buildings in ways to continue to attract visitors to a changing market.<\/p>\n
\tCasinos once catered to gamblers who stayed just a few hours. The trend is now for longer stays, at fewer casinos, in a city with a wider range of nongaming enticements.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe buildings that used to be casinos have to be deployed as something else,\u201d Loveman said. \u201cSomebody has to find interest and take these buildings and do something good with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCaesars closed the Showboat Atlantic City on Aug. 31 after the company was unable to find a buyer. Loveman said the company still hopes to sell it, and that real estate developers are most likely to have an interest in the boarded-up resort even if they intend to demolish it for redevelopment.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe need to make decisions based on the surrounding conditions,\u201d Loveman said. \u201cThe market must make improvements in order to provide the impression of a seaside modern resort-oriented environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Claridge was famously known as the \u201cSkyscrapper by the Sea\u201d in its early days when the 24-story building was the tallest in Atlantic City. The property catered to luminaries such as Chicago gangster Al Capone and Atlantic City political broker and racketeer Nucky Johnson \u2014 played as Nucky Thompson by Steve Buscemi on HBO\u2019s \u201cBoardwalk Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFrank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe made the Claridge their playground.<\/p>\n
\tToday, the Claridge could be the new model as many Atlantic City leaders explore their next steps in dealing with defunct hotel-casinos.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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