Trump Taj Mahal: 1990-2016

We all saw this one coming. Once the largest casino in the world, and the top-grossing casino in Atlantic City, the Trump Taj Mahal (affectionately referred to by many as ‘the Taj’) will deal its last hand before this year ends.

Of the dozens of casinos to grace Las Vegas East, none of them have had such a turbulent life as the Taj Mahal. Sure casinos have come and gone (Atlantis, Claridge), changed their names and ownership (Atlantic Club, Golden Nugget), and have either been imploded (Sands) or left to rot (Revel). But the Taj Mahal was dragged in the dirt the longest, kicking and screaming the whole way, and soon its tortuous ride will be over.

Controversy has mired the Taj from the very beginning. It was originally conceived as a complement to the neighboring Resorts Hotel and Casino, but hit roadblocks surrounding construction costs and general ownership. A nasty legal battle ensued, and long story short, Donald Trump stepped in, purchasing Taj from Resorts and finished the job, christening his new property as the Trump Taj Mahal. (An obscure reference found to this day of the casino’s change of hands is found in a sign above the valet entrance, reading: Donald Trump Presents the Taj Mahal.)

'Resorts Taj Mahal' under construction. Note the distinct lack of Trump.

After a lavish grand opening, the Taj Mahal faced some bankruptcy scares behind the scenes, but otherwise projected itself as top dog in Atlantic City. The 90s and early 00s bid well on the Taj Mahal, but Borgata quickly snatched Taj’s crown after opening in 2003, and has proudly worn it ever since. Still, the resort continued to do decently, even adding a second hotel tower in 2006. Come the end of the decade, however, the combination of Trump himself leaving the casino industry and the Great Recession left the Taj’s owners in a challenging position. Trump Entertainment Resorts, the parent company with its connection to Trump in name only, continued to mismanage, lose money, and choose not to re-invest in its three Trump-branded properties in Atlantic City. Trump Marina (née Castle) was sold and renamed to Golden Nugget (now a flourishing resort under its new management), Trump Plaza met a bitter and embarrassing demise in the fall of 2014, and Trump Taj Mahal was actually expected to follow suit later that year, citing a November closing date and then two different December dates.

Ever since its founder’s exit, Trump Entertainment Resorts struggled for years with the local worker’s unions, particularly with Local 54 (aka UNITE HERE!). Now it may be hard for millennials (such as myself) to picture this in today’s job landscape, but even as little as 20 years ago, a position at a major company was designed to set the worker up for life. They would spend 30, 40, even 50 years at this single company (usually in the same exact position), which in return would pay them well, provide adequate insurance benefits, and even <gasp> award you with a pension post-retirement. (Or if the company didn’t do this, they would at least play nice with the worker’s unions that did.) Today in this age of volatile career tracts, Obamacare, and 401(k)s, these job perks are the things of fairy tales, but to a young or even middle-aged worker who landed a job at the hottest new casino in Atlantic City in 1990, these were expected and cherished benefits that would see them through to a retirement in the 2030s. Unfortunately for everyone, these times have definitely changed. With the passing of the Affordable Care Act, a cash-strapped TER decided to slash the benefits of all its employees, whether they had worked there for a few weeks or a few decades. This was understandably the straw that broke the union’s back, and initiated very hostile relations between Taj’s management and the union. Unlike the employees of Trump Plaza who literally had the rug pulled from under them, Taj workers could either accept TER’s new rules (forcing already underpaid workers to accept Obamacare at the expense of their own wallets) or Taj would close as well. 

 

December 2014, days before Taj's intended demise. Not a soul to be seen.

No deal seemed to be made and the casino was gearing up to close just before the Christmas of 2014. They had received the OK to terminate operations from the city and casino commission, and closed one of the hotel towers and prestigious poker room. I decided to book a night on their last Tuesday in operation, and took all the pictures you see from that time. It was depressing and almost pathetic, and I can’t imagine it looking much different than this soon. The resort had essentially run out of money, and all that was left was for the final hands to be dealt, but miraculously in literally the 11th hour… billionaire investor Carl Icahn took on the Taj’s monstrous debt and wealth of issues. The Taj was not going to close! Quite the opposite in fact, with this influx of new money and ownership, the Taj Mahal was going to rise from its ashes!

Oh yeah, this is reassuring.

2015 was an awkward year for the Taj Mahal. A wealth of bad press and mixed messages left the resort in a confused state to the general public: is it open or not? If it isn’t, then why are its lights still on? If it is, why when I type in “Trump Taj Mahal” in Google it finishes the search with “closing”? I thought I saw in the news it was having trouble… Oh but I saw they struck a deal… Wait, Trump is running for president?! …needless to say, nobody was quite sure what was going on, not even the Taj itself. Its occupancy rates and casino earnings were still very disappointing, and the resort itself was still sparsely populated with employees or guests. Local 54 continued to go on its offensive against the management, going so far as projecting “BOYCOTT TAJ” from a spotlight onto the stark white walls of the casino’s parking garage. The Taj Mahal was on life support and nobody seemed to want to be there. The only thing keeping the place from financially collapsing on itself was the ‘donation’ of Icahn’s investment: literally money that fell from the sky.

Then came the burned-out letters.

Summer 2015. The sign has devolved to random slashes.

It’s a bit of an inside joke that the Atlantic City skyline is dominated by casino towers adorned by their property names in bright, red letters. With the exception of Revel, nearly every hotel or casino on the boardwalk proudly proclaims its name the same exact way. “SHOWBOAT.” “BALLYS.” (sic) “C  A  E  S  A  R  S.” “TROPICANA.” The non-casino Atlantic Palace recently updated its signage and intentionally uses blue lettering, self-admitting it wants to stand apart from its peers. The Trump Taj Mahal is absolutely one of those peers, and spells out several “TRUMP”s and “TAJ MAHAL”s in bold red from all four cardinal directions. These signs are essentially red plastic letters backlit by fluorescent tubes, and we all know how fluorescent lights like to buzz and go dim. A good assessment of how a casino in Atlantic City is doing is comically by looking at its signs, as mutilated letters at night show a lack of upkeep and concern. The media had a field day when Trump Plaza closed, as one of its marquees read ashamedly as “_U___ _LAZA.” I once had the misfortune of staying at Bally’s one night with half of its B burned out, effectively reading as “LALLYS.” But these lettering gaffes are swiftly handled, and within a day that B burned bright and majestic (at the expense of the compared dimness of its other letters, but I digress).

The Taj’s letters started to go out that year, one by one, section by section, and apparently Icahn’s money couldn’t quite stretch to bulb maintenance. The Taj Mahal’s already cryptic font choice led to combinations of chiaroscuro that translated to an alien language. “Honey, would you like to stay at the Trump, uh… ToJ M/h^I? Hmm, me either. I wonder if they’re even open, didn’t you read somewhere that…?” And unlike the occasional “SH_WBOAT”s and “LALLYS,” these bulbs remained dead for much longer, if not permanently. It was a darkly humorous yet embarrassing omen for the Taj Mahal as it entered its next year.

2016 started out promising, with Tropicana offering to take it off Icahn’s hands for him. The Tropicana (ironically the southernmost open casino on the boardwalk, Taj is the northernmost) had hit a slump years before, but re-invested and bounced back with a vengeance, and is arguably the most successful and most diverse boardwalk casino in Atlantic City. With Tropicana’s new ownership came the many possibilities of the Taj riding its wave, perhaps merging their loyalty programs, or getting extra revenue to put toward Taj’s upkeep. Casino earnings at the Taj on some months actually rose from the year before, showing promise of a new era. The Taj also started booking more and more high-profile celebrities and venues, and presented itself as a more confident resort than it was the year before. We’re here, we’ve always been open, and we mean business. “Excitement Returns!” There were even signs of possible rebranding, as the Trump name (which TER fought to retain and even paid for when they were already strapped for cash) has been slowly diminishing on official correspondences, and the simple name “TAJ MAHAL” is used in big, branding-type lettering, at a jaunty angle to boot. The first major victory for the unofficially ‘new’ Taj Mahal was the reopening of its poker room. Taj Poker had always had a cult following, even in the resort’s darkest times, so its “Return” earlier this year was much appreciated. Dining “Returned” with the re-opening of the Taj’s signature casino buffet, the Sultan’s Feast. And just mere weeks ago, the Taj was home to a successful Guinness World Record acrobatic attempt, further ushering the “Return” of action and excitement.

What unfortunately didn’t “Return” were the pensions and insurance benefits of its maligned employees.

Local 54 chose to wait in the wings, noticing that the Taj Mahal was setting up for a rebound in services, popularity, and liquid assets. But when it seemed like things from the benefits standpoint were not going to change, the union started an all-out assault. They threatened to strike at five different casinos in Atlantic City starting on July 4, as these benefit dissents were spread all over the town. No doubt going on strike during the city’s busiest weekend would put their discourse in the public eye. On their radar were Tropicana, Caesars, Bally’s, and Harrah’s, just to start. And Taj, oh their old friend the Taj, they had a very special place on their attack list. The first four casinos managed to eke by with compromises that both sides agreed on, and were ultimately spared from the strike. But poor Taj, literally poor Taj, they just couldn’t come to terms, at least not yet. They were too busy trying to have “Guests Return,” “Gamblers Return,” and above all “Maintenance and Fixed Letters Return” than to play the union game. As the fall of 2014 repeated itself, compromising deals were not made and the union started their strike.

To this day, the strike is still ongoing, soon to become one of the longest strikes the city has ever seen. Picketers could be found every hour of the day from July till now, protesting the Taj Mahal and all in charge of it. Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton took advantage of the truly bizarre coincidences and delivered rally speeches in front of the shuttered Trump Plaza, demonizing her opponent whose name is still visible in the labelscars left behind, and also met with strikers up the boardwalk. Ironically the properties prospered the most with Trump actually in control of them, and it’s only because of these subsidiary companies in charge that things deteriorated so badly. Of course, no one will ever realize this, and many of the ones that do will still choose not to believe it.

Credit where it's due: this is a very shrewd choice of backdrop.

As this strike was started to bring about change, today it brought the worst possible kind. Tropicana announced that the strike has bled out the Taj Mahal for the last time, and this now-once-again broke resort will become another boardwalk casualty. Considering this is now the fourth times the Taj Mahal has threatened to close its doors, one can’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow. Some may almost taunt the Taj, saying “go ahead, do it! I dare you.” But this time it feels definitive. The battered property had been thrown lifelines since before it even opened: first by Trump, then his bankruptcy lawyers (lol), then by Icahn, and finally by Tropicana. The Taj is practically cursed, probably by its very name alone, as the real Taj Mahal in India is essentially a giant tomb. 

How many times do you rehabilitate a drug addict before they eventually relapse yet again? Likewise, how many times do you pump money into a giant resort that has always slipped from its footing? Perhaps it’s finally time to let the Taj die. In many ways it is the symbol of Atlantic City’s pure casino era (1978-2007): excessive, overdone, and ultimately full of hot air. With AC being forced into a more diverse direction, these flaws of the past need to be able to be restarted. The Taj takes up an enormous footprint of beachfront land (and no, it’s not just the footprints of its blanched white elephants), and land like that (not saddled with deed restrictions) could be the base for a wealth of new growth. Imagine the new developments of the Hoboken riverfront transplanted onto the Atlantic City boardwalk, and all the good business and people they would bring. New hope, new money, new ideas, and no struggling with the previous tenants of gold sheathed minarets and burned out red letters. If Atlantic City really wants to change, this changing of the guards is exactly where it will start.

Good bye, Trump Taj Mahal. It’s been fun, and I’ve made many memories (and money) with you. But it’s okay for you to go. Your legacy will usher in a better Atlantic City for us all. You’re showing a 20 but we have 21.

Blackjack.

Off the AC Expressway just after Plaza's closure. 

Borgata's House Edge

It’s hard to figure out what’s worse: the dead Revel rotting on the boardwalk, or the flourishing Borgata refusing to share its wealth.

In the latest Atlantic City quagmire, the spotlight is on the Borgata. Upon opening in 2003, it took the city by storm and became the state’s most consistently successful casino. (Perhaps even, the most successful casino on the East Coast.) Where many other casinos have started strong but have since faded, Borgata continues to reinvent itself and caters to every demographic over the age of 21. Young or old, rich or not-so, clubber or diner, gambler or shopper… anyone who enjoys a break from the norm can find plenty to see and do at Borgata. For over 12 years that has been an undisputed fact.

So as AC’s king of the hill, it’s no surprise the Borgata rakes in a windfall every month… largely for itself. Granted that is the nature of business, but keep in mind the whole reason casinos were allowed in Atlantic City was so they could pay it forward. Keep most for themselves but give Atlantic City itself a share, so they could fix up the town and re-spark the magic (that it so desperately needs). Though they all pay their taxes, almost every casino company operating in AC is guilty of not doing their part in revitalizing the city. Instead they feed their profits toward their (Vegas-based) parent companies, neither helping out the city nor really themselves, allowing the casinos to remain stuck in the 80s. Only recently have the AC casinos gone through heavy renovations; and in places like Tropicana and Bally’s one can still find old ‘relics’ that do little to boost their image. Other casinos that have remained almost untouched since 1984, such as the Atlantic Club and Trump Plaza, didn’t renovate but chose to shutter.

Borgata is arguably the only casino in Atlantic City on par with the best of Las Vegas.

Borgata though, is a bit different. It is owned by Marina District Development, a company that, put very simply, only exists for the Borgata. It started out as various things with various owners (Wynn, MGM, and Boyd among others all having some affiliation now or at one time) all converging on this one resort to galvanize AC’s marina district. The Borgata is the result of their disjointed joint efforts, and has become a major success. The ends justified the means. Because the Borgata has no overhead to pay to, it has been allowed to put all of its profit back into itself, continuing its expansions and maintaining the gold standard. This is the simple reason why the Borgata has always been in the lead.

With big profits come big taxes, and the Borgata generally played along, doing the right thing paying its property taxes and being a good little boy… until now. As incredulous as it sounds, Atlantic City is almost out of money. The city itself is nearly bankrupt and Gov. Christie is this close to having the state take over the city’s affairs. How this managed to happen, especially in a city with casino profits in the billions, is mind-numbing. Despite all this, for years the Borgata knew it were owed hundreds of millions in tax appeals by the city, and its finally put its foot down. Taxes it overpaid (that they barely financially felt) to a city with no money currently in the bank.

A rich entity giving too much to a broke entity. Let that sink in. That hypocrisy. That asininity.

Now, understandably, Borgata wants its money back. All $170 million of it. Until it starts getting back their returns, it will withhold paying its current taxes. So far it already refused to make a $7.2 million payment. That is money the city needs very badly right now (though honestly it’s middling compared to the larger picture). On one hand, one can’t blame the Borgata. That $170 million is money it dutifully paid over they years and is entitled to have back. It was not the city’s to have in the first place. Imagine you not getting your tax return because the country couldn’t afford it, of course you’d be upset but also in awe as to how that situation is possible.

But at the same time, see it the other way. This city that gave the Borgata life is in a bad position, and stressing it even further with tax returns runs the risk of financially destroying the casino’s home. If the Borgata was a team player, they would pardon the refunds and maybe even give the city a little more of the resort’s major profits to try and help it out.

Only these are not two schoolyard friends having each other’s back. One is a cold, hard business and the other is cold, hard government. And business is not entitled to help government. There’s no reason to be “nice.” It’s capitalism, pure and simple. The American Way. Trump 2016.

Borgata's main expansion, The Water Club, is a perfect example of the resort's constant innovation.

Even if Atlantic City shut down completely and the Borgata closed (which would never happen), the Marina District Development execs would simply “cash out” and open somewhere else. Or even just rest on their lucrative laurels. They’ve already won. The city and the government at large would be forced to deal with it, on top of all their other issues. And like most other Americans, wary of big government, by refusing future tax payments and insisting on their returns, the Borgata is simply saying, “Screw ‘em.”

Here’s hoping it all works out, though unless someone really goes off-script it’s unlikely anything will.

Revel's Fine Situation

$5,000. Every day.

For those unaware, Glenn Straub finally purchased Revel for $85 million. A $2 billion resort, mind you, that never fully repaid itself. He plans to turn it into some kind of something dubbed ‘Polo North,’ with many plans ranging from polo grounds to water parks, downsized casinos to hotel/residential. He even mentioned raising Revel’s planned-but-never-constructed second tower. It’s all completely up in the air, and the estimated additional costs for Polo North are $500 million.

Some people are just filthy rich.

But there’s a major problem. Remember ACR? The power plant built for and only servicing the Revel complex? The second the sale to Straub was official, ACR no longer was obligated to keep the lights on. The interim between ownership is over, and Straub’s sale did not include immediate repayment to ACR. So ACR pulled the plug. No lights, no air flow, and most importantly, no water. No water means no fire suppression. Not only is Revel susceptible to the salt air and possible mold growth, but if the tower catches fire, it’s done. Be it an innocent spark or intended arson, Revel has no defense. Should fire break out 6-700 feet up, it will be impossible to fight.

Active fire suppression systems (sprinklers, alarms, etc.) are a New Jersey requirement for buildings of Revel’s category. For being without fire safety, Revel was fined $10,000 on the first day. Subsequent days add additional $5,000 penalties. The power has been off since April 9. For those keeping score, that’s $40,000 in fines as of this article’s date (and please tell me you caught the pun in the title.) At this rate, the fines will bring the price back up to what Revel should have cost in the first place!

Aha, Straub said, but I have a solution! Instead of coming to terms with ACR, I’ll just truck in some temporary generators! A few rows of diesel-powered generators will provide enough basic power for the complex, including fire systems, until I get a more permanent plan in place! It’s perfect! Not… quite. Now the state has problems with the generators. Being diesel fueled, that creates exhaust and pollution, and a couple rows of that is creating an alleged air-quality issue, and Straub is being asked to find a greener way to power his new building.

Just… ugh.

The infamous Revel/Polo North generators.

Now I’m blaming the state. You really can’t just cut the guy a break?! Revel is the ultimate taxpayer’s burden, and there’s constantly been an issue with trying to revitalize the complex at every twist and turn. The state is simply being annoying. Then there’s ACR, the eternally sour power plant. You cut off your one and only customer, because they couldn’t pay you. But now, nobody’s paying you! Was this really the best thing to do? Is the principle really being heard here? Or are you guys just coming off like the butthurt pariah? If you had any decent business sense, ACR, you would keep racking up the IOUs on Revel, and add interest. (Because those generators still wouldn’t be a permanent solution.) That way when they finally can pay you, you’ll be rolling in it. You had the monopoly on them, and instead you cut them loose. If the building subsequently suffers, you will suffer too, maybe to the point where there won’t even be a building you can power.

NJ: Just give this guy a pass for now.

ACR: Restore the power and dream for an absolution.

Straub: I’m sorry, dude. Keep strong and carry on.

and Revel: Don’t forget to pay your $5,000 fine tomorrow!

State of The Pier Shops: Spring 2015

For centuries now, several piers have dotted the Atlantic City boardwalk, and they were always far from mere fishing docks. There’s the famous Steel Pier, which hosted several entertainment attractions through the decades, from horse diving (look it up) to the current amusement park. There’s the Garden Pier, now the home of the Atlantic City Museum. And then there’s the Million Dollar Pier, which always looked less like a wooden dock and more like a long building jutting into the ocean. Following the casino boom in the 80s it became a shopping mall, known as The Shops on Ocean One. Then in 2006 the pier was purchased by Caesars, who connected it to the main property via skybridge and turned it into The Pier Shops at Caesars, as it’s now known today.

The Pier Shops were born during the financial height of Atlantic City. With the Tanger Outlets (‘The Walk’) performing admirably, it was decided that AC needed an upscale swath of boutiques to complement the factory stores. All 11 casinos at the time were on the up, and there was no recession in sight… yet. Thus the Pier Shops were born as New Jersey’s answer to Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. Two floors of premium retail space, a third floor composed entirely of unique restaurants, and a ‘secret’ fourth floor to rent out for weddings or other private events, literally right out on the ocean. Taking a cue from the Forum Shops in Vegas’ Caesars Palace, the new Pier Shops at Caesars merged opulence with oceanfront, creating a mall unlike any other in the world. It was cultivated by Taubman Centers, which owns many other upscale malls including Crystals and The Mall at Short Hills, and appropriately enough they only allowed the cream of the crop to take up residence in the Pier. It had Gucci, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Armani… names and labels that never had a presence in Atlantic City (or South Jersey in general), until now.

The lobby. That beautiful display bottom left is now a Cinnabon/Auntie Anne's combo. -_-

And what would a Caesars property be without a little spectacle? At the far end of the Pier stood an attraction cryptically known as ‘The Show,’ a circular atrium surrounding a giant network of fountains. On the hour, the house lights would dim and the fountains would activate in preset patterns of dancing waters, flashing lights and music on cue. The Show was one of the first major, exclusive, and free non-gaming attractions in Atlantic City, pre-dating the current trend of introducing family-friendly attractions by several years.

The Show during one of its shows. May 2012.

All this was incredibly situated on a pier in the Atlantic Ocean, connected to one of AC’s more luxurious boardwalk casinos. One can flit to and from the Pier to Caesars proper without ever setting foot outside, a godsend during those winter months. Guests staying at Bally’s or Claridge can also pass through to the Pier via a series of indoor connections, and anyone who stayed at the adjacent Trump Plaza just had to brace the cold for mere seconds. The Pier had it all.

But today, the Pier is a dead mall.

Just a few storefronts down, and things get real quiet real fast. March 2015.

You’ll enter either from the boardwalk or 2nd floor skybridge. At first, everything seems fine. There’s still Gucci and Louis in attendance, with Armani Exchange a bit further down. Yes, it’s odd to smell the Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s so close to the designer suits and handbags, but you let it go. It’s Atlantic City, people… something’s gotta give. Continuing down the first floor, the storefronts get a bit sparse, and you notice the wraps covering up the empty retail spaces, trying to make it look intentional. Those tenants still remaining start looking a bit out of place, surely that Cellairis (cell phone covers and chargers) doesn’t need the fancy storefront it has (and is only using the front third). It’s especially jarring to see a full-fledged Guess store in the same area as ‘The Wall of Magnets,’ another re-positioned storefront that literally consists of a long wall of refrigerator magnets for sale. No kidding. You continue and reach the halfway point, a beautiful wood atrium with spiral stairs and exposed elevator work, allowing your first floor change since entering. It’s beautiful until you realize the plants are fake and dusty, you see labelscars of ‘THE SHOW’ on the signage, and there's an eerie silence from the zero customers passing through.

At this point, the first floor is roped off, you can no longer continue down the Pier from here. Puzzled and slightly nervous, you ascend to the second floor.

Stock photo of the second floor, probably around 2010.

Second floor as of March 2015.

Now the second floor was always designed to look like eternal night, with black ceilings and no proper lighting, but washed in ‘starlights’ of different colors, though mostly green. During the Pier’s prime, the starlights would combine with the storefronts to make the floor look much more inviting, like a main street thoroughfare after dark. A cool concept, as long as there are still stores standing. Curiously, the second floor allows further passage toward the ocean, but with nary a store to be seen. It’s genuinely dark and a bit creepy, voices carry from the few people that are strolling around and it all comes off a bit sketchy. In the distance is the light from a storefront: a lone Sunglass Hut. Its neighbors have all left, and it’s highly unlikely this location is earning its keep.

Then you get to The Show at the far end. Or at least, where The Show used to be…

The Show has been completely removed. March 2015.

Empty, boarded over, and almost ghostly. The Show atrium used to house several stores, ample spectating space, and the scaffolding of lights and speakers that made The Show well, the show. Now the far end of the Pier holds nothing. Adding insult to irony, barely visible through one of the larger storefronts are signs advertising blacklight mini-golf inside, though it’s hard to tell if it’s even open. What used to punctuate the start of the ocean with a bang, has now dropped off with a thud.

Ascending the transparent escalators on the far end, you approach the third floor, wondering how it can get any worse.

Third floor as of March 2015. The Pier's saving grace.

But to your surprise, the third floor is bustling! The Pier’s third floor is exclusively restaurants, and fine dining at that. The layout is quite unorthodox, as the floor is essentially wide open, with the restaurants, each with their own identity, weaving around each other. Some utilize their space very impressively, like the Continental. It’s made of a chain of dining ‘islands’ accented with fire pits and connected by bridges over moat-like channels. Even if it’s in between mealtimes with few diners eating, the open floor plan adds them up and makes each restaurant look that much busier. The third floor is noticeably the brightest, with large windows flanking each side allowing sunlight and lovely views of the beach and boardwalk. At night, the casino lights take over and make Atlantic City look surprisingly chic and alive. Having completed your circuit, you descend back down to the ground floor, re-smell the Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s, ogle Gucci and Louis and venture back outside to the boardwalk, leaving you confused and bewildered as to what the heck you just walked through.

How… how… were the Pier Shops allowed to disintegrate like this?! I get it: recession, general AC downfall, cutting back, yeah I know. But this is the Pier! This was *the* premier shopping mall of the city, if not the county! With Caesars’ name proudly emblazoned on it, the new Pier Shops were set up as a reason why Caesars AC is a step up from the other boardwalk casinos. Why were the upscale tenants allowed to break their leases, why were places like the godforsaken Wall of Magnets given the OK next to Guess and Gucci, why wasn’t The Show better utilized (holiday themed shows, hello??), and most importantly, why was this place allowed to die? Really Caesars, you were one of the few guys turning a profit in AC. You couldn’t lend the Pier a few bucks to stay relevant? You couldn’t find a way to integrate your Total Rewards program into customer incentives for Pier shopping? (At this point Caesars should just hire me. I'm serious.) And in typical AC fashion, instead of trying to fix what’s broken, you just literally put a velvet rope in front of it and pretended it wasn’t there. Not cool.

Directories still reflect the Pier's heyday. Over half of these stores are no longer there. March 2015.

Thank god someone is coming in to revitalize the degradation Caesars allowed the Pier to sink to. A guy named Blatstein. He sees the Pier for what it is: a unique property that can be put to unique uses, in a city that desperately needs some unique ideas to disguise the fact that it’s uniquely screwed. According to recent announcements, he sees the Pier as a mix for the existing restaurants, new music venues, bowling alleys (ingenious given the Pier’s rectangular shape), and maybe even a pool club in The Show’s atrium. A year-round pool on top of the ocean, think about that. Ironically, the Pier’s possible new life echoes the former Showboat (closed prematurely by Caesars themselves last year), as the Showboat opened with a large bowling center and later became known for its House of Blues extension. Could the new Pier be a reincarnated Showboat? This time it’ll actually be on the water, as all good boats should be. =P

Like its boardwalk cousin Revel, the Pier Shops at Caesars were born in a period of economic rise but had the misfortune of living in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both tried to court an upscale clientele that simply wasn’t there. And with Revel already dead in the water, the Pier is on life support. One can only hope that Caesars just lets Blatstein buy the Pier with no strings attached and no drama, unfortunate staples of AC deals these days. Let him make it whatever he wants. Anything is better than what is now.

Because what it is now is just damn pathetic.

The (Million Dollar) Pier back in 1950. Amazing how things change, and it was probably better off staying like this.

The Showboat/Stockton Debacle

Come on, Atlantic City. How much worse can things keep getting?

The Showboat opened in 1987 as part of a wave of new development in the uptown boardwalk area. Previously, uptown AC was dominated by Resorts International, the first casino to open back in 1978. Showboat joined it about a decade later and the Trump Taj Mahal soon followed in 1990. These three casinos, all in a row, partnered with the existing boardwalk shops and piers to continue tourist interest in this region of the city. (Uptown would also welcome Revel in 2012 as its fourth casino, but that’s a bit of a different story…)

Various plots of Atlantic City, mostly on the boardwalk and marina, have been zoned exclusively for hotel/casino use, some reservations in place date back to the 70s when gambling was in the process of being legalized. This helped ensure that the city would have no problem finding premium oceanfront property to build its Las Vegas East. This explains why currently there are many plots that are going unused along the boardwalk, land that was once occupied by casinos like Atlantis and Sands. This land by law cannot be used for anything else but a hotel/casino. Since no one is coming forward to build new casinos (and really, who can blame them?) the land remains vacant and frustrated.

These deed restrictions started off effective, creating the Great Wall of Casinos we now have, but nowadays the market and demand has shrunken considerably. As many as 12 casinos have operated concurrently in AC, as recently as January 2014. Today the city can barely sustain eight, and the Showboat is not one of them. It's been made clear that we’ll never need (or be able to support) more than that any longer, which is sad. But it also means that deed-restricted land will continue to go unused. We need to find and allow other uses for these closed casinos and vacant lots.

Enter Stockton University, and their plan to transform the closed Showboat into the satellite Stockton-Island campus. Lately it has come under the moniker of 'Stoboat.' Cute, right?

Stockton + Showboat = Stoboat.

At first, all seemed to go well. Stockton successfully purchased the Showboat complex from its parent company Caesars last year, for the bargain-basement price of only $18 million. Immediately Stockton announced its plans to rename the building, convert the casino into offices and classrooms, use the entertainment venues for theatre students, and continue to operate the hotel towers for public use as well as dormitories. With this influx of young intellectuals, it would help recuperate the ailing uptown district and inject AC with  fresh air and innovation. As part of the deal, Stockton claimed that Caesars would work on changing the deed restriction to allow the Showboat site to become something other than a casino.

Turns out Caesars never did. And who told on them? None other than AC's dead casino 

walking, the Taj Mahal.

The Taj has been in the news (and in my blog) very frequently these past few months. Once the largest casino in the world, and top-grossing casino in NJ, the past few years have seen the Taj experience a spectacular fall from grace. Scheduled to close several times, saved by a regretful billionaire, and mired in very public fights with the unions, the fact the Taj still has its doors open is a blessing it does not deserve. With all the problems it continues to have, the Taj Mahal literally cannot afford any more non-positive publicity. Now they are whistleblowing against Stockton, quoting the obsolete charters that the Showboat site must only be used for a casino. Operating the Stockton-Island campus would, according to Taj, weaken the bond it has with Resorts as a cohesive unit of uptown casinos, not to mention introduce hundreds of people under 21 tantalizingly close to bars and slot machines that are restricted against them.

Now that last bit I can almost agree with. Of a college’s student body, a good half of them are aged 18-20. Housing so many young adults in a former casino, with actual casinos literally steps away… it’s odd. Although it would no doubt bring in more foot traffic for the Mahal, it would be made of patrons they can’t (and won’t) accommodate. But their other reasons are simply foolish. Taj would prefer another casino adjacent to it, eating away at its customer base? Hate to break it to you Taj, but Showboat and Revel closed for a reason, and you haven't turned a profit in years. Why would you want to block a non-competing organization from moving in, hoping to turn the city around, at the excuse of wanting more competition? Or the preference of having an eyesore of a vacant neighbor eventually decaying beyond repair?

I will admit, the Taj Mahal (left and center) and Showboat (right) are literally on top of each other.

The Taj needs to keep its mouth shut. They are the big losers of the boardwalk right now, financially and critically. If any casino needs to count its blessings right now, it’s them. You worried about 19-year-olds playing video poker? Really? Hire more security. Create more jobs. Do some good. Instead you should explore how to get their visiting parents in to drop a couple dollars and stay the night there. And once these kids do turn 21, you’ve got em by the throat! Interest in gaming fades with each passing generation, cater to these brand new customers! Give these kids every reason and then some to make AC and the Taj Mahal the place to commemorate one of life’s most important birthdays. Maybe even bring the Casbah back from the grave, and if that means doing it Deko-style (18 to party, 21 to drink) then just go for it!! This is a wonderful opportunity for a hotel and casino that is in desperate need of a shot in the arm. God forbid they have to think out of the box.

Open Stockton-Island. Usher in the new generation of Atlantic City. And Taj… be quiet.