![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i59.tinypic.com\/2pz0jdx.jpg\")
\n\tPictured is an early 1960’s aerial photo of Atlantic City, N.J., prior to the birth of the casino industry. Twenty years ago this month, the first casino opened here as New Jersey embarked on a last-ditch effort to save it’s one-time "Oueen of Resorts." Gambling was hailed, at the time, as a tool to redevelop the dilapidated Boardwalk, hotels and blighted neighborhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n
\tTLANTIC CITY<\/p>\n
\tFour years ago, the obituaries for Resorts Atlantic City were being written.<\/p>\n
\tThe city\u2019s oldest hotel-casino \u2014 the first U.S. gaming hall ever licensed outside of Nevada \u2014 was in disrepair. The aging resort was bleeding money. Management of the 1920s-era art deco building was troubled. Customers were fleeing to other Boardwalk properties.<\/p>\n
\tNo one envisioned that in September 2014 Resorts would be a survivor.<\/p>\n
\tA third of the Boardwalk\u2019s casino industry has closed in a span of nine months. The shutdowns eliminated 8,000 hospitality and gaming jobs, silenced more than 9,000 slot machines and removed from the market more than 5,000 hotel rooms and suites.<\/p>\n
\tLast week\u2019s closing of Trump Plaza \u2014 the fourth this year \u2014 is viewed as the end of the casino market-downsizing.<\/p>\n
\t \tMany observers believe a fifth casino, Trump Taj Mahal, will remain open. The resort filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 9 and threatened to close in November unless it receives financial concessions from creditors and unions.<\/p>\n \tThe casino closings were no surprise to Atlantic City leaders and gaming industry analysts.<\/p>\n \tAtlantic City\u2019s gaming revenue has tumbled more than 60 percent since 2006. Business was lost to neighboring states that added casinos, including Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Maryland. The Great Recession also factored in the downturn, leaving casino customers with less money for entertainment.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe inevitable supply contraction of Atlantic City is underway,\u201d Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett told investors in a Sept. 12 research report. \u201cWhen fewer people spend fewer dollars, properties close. As far as we are concerned, it is long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n \tResorts President Mark Giannantonio, who has spent more than 30 years in the Atlantic City casino industry, said the East Coast gaming saturation of the past decade led to the downsizing.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe market is so quickly correcting itself that it\u2019s hard for people to comprehend,\u201d Giannantonio said.<\/p>\n \tResorts survived, he said, because new owners reinvested in the property.<\/p>\n \t \tThe late Dennis Gomes and businessman Morris Bailey bought the casino for $31.5 million in 2010. Bailey brought in the Mohegan Indian Tribe to operate the casino. Mohegan, which also operates casinos in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, helped diversify Resorts\u2019 customer base.<\/p>\n \tBailey partnered with Jimmy Buffett\u2019s Margaritaville company in 2013 to reposition some of the gaming floor and build a Landshark Bar &Grill on the beach adjacent to the property\u2019s Boardwalk entrance.<\/p>\n \tMargaritaville helped attract a younger audience.<\/p>\n \t\u201cOur customer demographic changed,\u201d Giannantonio said.<\/p>\n \tAtlantic City Alliance President Elizabeth Cartmell said Resorts\u2019 comeback is a case study for other hotel-casinos looking to get beyond the carnage of 2014.<\/p>\n \tResorts brought in nongaming attractions and remodeled hotel rooms and public space.<\/p>\n \tThe result was a profitable casino for the first time since the mid 2000s. In 2014, Resorts\u2019 gaming revenue is up almost 4 percent for the first eight months of the year, including a 2.3 percent increase in August.<\/p>\n \tAccording to the Gaming Enforcement Division, Resorts had an operating profit of $1.9 million in the quarter that ended June 30, reversing a $1.3 million loss the previous year.<\/p>\n \t\u201cResorts was on the death list,\u201d said Cartmell, whose agency was created in 2011 to market and promote the destination. \u201cThe shakeout was long expected. We knew it was going to come. We just didn\u2019t know when and who. Now, we largely have the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n \tMARKET NO. 3<\/p>\n \tAtlantic City is now considered the No. 3 casino market in the United States behind the Strip and all of Pennsylvania. In 2013, the city\u2019s casinos produced $2.86 billion in gaming revenue, the least in 25 years. Through August, the market is down 6.3 percent.<\/p>\n \tThe casino closings run counter to positive signs coming from Atlantic City.<\/p>\n \tTourism leaders said hotels ran at better than 95 percent occupancy during the summer, helped by special events. Free outdoor concerts on a stage in front of Caesars Atlantic City by country music superstars Blake Shelton and Lady Antebellum packed the beach with more than 60,000 fans for each show.<\/p>\n \t\u201cPeople actually had trouble booking rooms this summer,\u201d Cartmell said.<\/p>\n \tBorgata President Tom Ballance called it a strange summer.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe market had all this tough news, but we\u2019re having a great summer,\u201d Ballance said.<\/p>\n \tNevertheless, visitation was down 2 percent, to 26.7 million in 2013, according to the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality &Tourism at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Atlantic City\u2019s visitor numbers peaked at nearly 35 million in 2005 and have declined every year since.<\/p>\n \tZarnett warned that Atlantic City is not yet out of danger.<\/p>\n \tNew casinos in Philadelphia and Maryland will slice even further into Atlantic City\u2019s gaming revenue stream by the end of the decade. One countermove would have Atlantic City reposition itself as a seaside destination with new nongaming attractions.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe see declining revenues, fewer hotels and slot machines, and yes even fewer salt water taffy sales,\u201d Zarnett said of the candy conceived here in 1883.<\/p>\n \tBut no one is giving up. Atlantic City, observers said, is already on the path to becoming more than just gaming.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe\u2019re seeing those changes today,\u201d said John Palmieri, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which finances nongaming development for casinos and other businesses. The state agency is funded by a 1.25 percent gaming revenue tax.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThis is an evolutionary process,\u201d Palmieri said. \u201cThe casinos are coming to us with more and more development ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n \tHe cites more than a dozen different projects funded by the authority this year that could push nongaming customer spending in Atlantic City to more than $1 billion annually.<\/p>\n \tResorts Atlantic City used authority funding to help cover nongaming aspects of its $35 million Margaritaville expansion. Tropicana Atlantic City included authority money in financing a $25 million project that included new restaurants fronting the Boardwalk, including a branch of Chickie\u2019s &Pete\u2019s, a popular Philadelphia sports tavern.<\/p>\n \tTropicana will receive $18.8 million to help with a $35 million renovation of 434 hotel rooms in one tower, add retail space and a health club, and spruce up a Boardwalk facade.<\/p>\n \tThose projects show promise in helping bring in tourists for experiences they can\u2019t get at new casinos closer to home.<\/p>\n \t\u201cOn weekends, we\u2019re packed, especially for football games,\u201d Chickie\u2019s &Pete\u2019s general manager Steve Callendar said. \u201cWe get a lot of walk-in customers from the Boardwalk. \u201cThe restaurant has done well in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe Tropicana is on the Boardwalk\u2019s south end, near the Atlantic Club, the first casino to close in February.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe closings haven\u2019t hurt us,\u201d Callendar said. \u201cWe have steady customers coming from the casino.\u201d<\/p>\n \tIn July, Harrah\u2019s Atlantic City opened a Martorano\u2019s Italian restaurant. Harrah\u2019s Regional President Rick Mazer said he met a couple from Philadelphia who drove 62 miles to the Atlantic City casino just to have dinner at Martorano\u2019s, which started in south Philadelphia.<\/p>\n \tMeanwhile, an 86,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops \u2014 New Jersey\u2019s first \u2014 will open next spring near The Walk, an outdoor outlet shopping district between the Boardwalk and the Convention Center.<\/p>\n \tBass Pro Shops received $12.3 million from the authority, and will feature an aquarium, boat showroom, restaurant, indoor firing range and a 170-space parking lot. An average Bass Pro Shops draws 1 million annual visitors, Cartmell said.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThere 70,000 licensed fishermen in New Jersey,\u201d Cartmell said. \u201cWe believe this will draw from all over the state.\u201d<\/p>\n \tPalmieri also touted a planned indoor public market near the Boardwalk area. The project is still in development.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe good news is there is a lot of activity on the horizon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \tSHIFTING FOCUS<\/p>\n \tGaming leaders want Atlantic City to refocus efforts on the convention and trade show business. Several executives cited a study showing the market attracts roughly 2 percent of all East Coast corporate meetings and events, losing out to New York City, Philadelphia and other large cities.<\/p>\n \tThat notion perplexes Borgata\u2019s Ballance.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIn New York, you\u2019re paying $800 a night for a hotel room,\u201d Ballance said. \u201cIn Philadelphia, it\u2019s $500 a night. Here, you would pay maybe $129 a night and have all these entertainment options. We\u2019ve done an abysmal job in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n \tTourism leaders recently hired a new convention center head and increased sales staff to focus on generating more midweek business.<\/p>\n \tThe reinvestment authority sank $45 million into a new Waterfront Conference Center at Harrah\u2019s Atlantic City. The $125.8 million project, with 100,000 square feet of meeting space, is expected to draw more meetings to Atlantic City.<\/p>\n \tMazer said the facility\u2019s two new 50,000-square-foot ballrooms \u2014 each able to break into 27 smaller meeting rooms \u2014 are aimed at corporate meetings too small to need the 500,000-square-foot Atlantic City Convention Center.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt\u2019s the piece of the puzzle missing in this picture,\u201d Mazer said.<\/p>\n \tWithout downplaying the impact of casino job losses, state officials and business leaders acknowledge that a gaming downturn was inevitable as more gaming comes online in the Northeast.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThis is a natural evolution,\u201d New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said following a two-hour, 15-minute summit on Atlantic City.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe fact of the matter is that gambling is real in over 40 states,\u201d Christie said. \u201cThe need to diversify beyond a gambling hub is necessary. There is a commitment to build nongaming attractions. We need to broaden its appeal. Sixty-three percent of Northeast residents identify Atlantic City as a place to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n \tCaesars offered jobs to more than 500 workers displaced by the Showboat\u2019s closing, including positions at the company\u2019s three remaining Atlantic City casinos.<\/p>\n \tNongaming jobs are being created, however, in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n \tUNITE HERE President Bob McDevitt, whose Union Local 54 represents many displaced hotel and restaurant workers, said he\u2019s hopeful the closed casinos will reopen, although many won\u2019t have gaming.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe know a lot of these jobs aren\u2019t going to be coming back,\u201d McDevitt said. \u201cThe people toll is a tough aspect. Many of these folks were in their positions for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n \tSo what happens to the closed hotel-casinos?<\/p>\n \tThat depends on whom you ask.<\/p>\n \tMayor Don Guardian and others advocate demolishing the run-down Trump Plaza to better connect The Walk and the Boardwalk, offering more spots for shops and restaurants.<\/p>\n \tAlso unclear is the fate of the 801-room Atlantic Club, owned by a Florida developer who also bought the historic Claridge from Casesars earlier this year for $12.5 million. The Claridge, a hotel annex to Bally\u2019s Atlantic City since 2005, was renovated and reopened as a nongaming hotel.<\/p>\n \tCaesars closed the Showboat on Aug. 31 and wants to sell the building as a nongaming property.<\/p>\n \tThe 1,400-room Revel, which closed Sept. 2, was in financial trouble from Day One. The building, the most expensive hotel-casino ever built in Atlantic City at $2.4 billion, is controlled by the bankruptcy court. An auction will be held Wednesday after a Florida developer offered $90 million cash for the closed facility.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe market will determine the future of these buildings,\u201d Palmieri said.<\/p>\n No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By HOWARD STUTZ LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Pictured is an early 1960’s aerial photo of Atlantic City, N.J., prior to the birth of the casino industry. Twenty years ago this month, the first casino opened here as New Jersey embarked on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i58.tinypic.com\/27ydaat.jpg\")
\n\tThe construction site for the Bass Pro Shops in Atlantic City is seen on Sep. 10, 2014. The 86,000 square foot retail outlet is expected to attract 1 million visitors a year, according to tourism officials. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i57.tinypic.com\/21j5ggi.jpg\")
\n\tThis Wednesday July 23, 2014 photograph shows casinos along the Atlantic City, N.J. boardwalk, from left, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino, with its Chairman Tower, the Showboat Casino Hotel, and the Revel Casino Hotel. The Revel Casino Hotel will close its doors on Sept. 10, 2014 after failing to find a buyer in bankruptcy court, company officials announced Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n
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