A Sinners Guide to Atlantic City Casinos

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Tracking the progress of Atlantic City 2.0 : if it happens, that is.

New Jersey To Take Control Of Atlantic City Gaming

When we started the CityBOOM blog three or so years ago, its goal was to keep track of the dramatic changes that were on the verge of transforming Atlantic City back into a bonafide casino destination.

Since that time, the economy has tanked, casino projects have failed, been postponed or gone bankrupt. To some degree, the City of Atlantic City has done their share of kneecapping the industry that shares their roads and beaches and provides a tremendous amount of tax revenue.

Tomorrow, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will present plans to the state government which will give New Jersey control over the gaming and entertainment district in Atlantic City. As part of the plan, the state will permanently close down Meadowlands Racetrack (my trottahs!) and take an active role in nurturing and growing the Atlantic City casino corridor.

A-f*ing-men.

But... and there always is a 'but'... is the state's takeover of the AC casino sector too little too late to save this dying beast? I hope not.

Mirage Atlantic City

Here's a blast from the not so distant past. Sometime in 2001, once Borgata's upward construction motion showered Renaissance Point with the buzz of potential, freshly combined MGM and Mirage brass commissioned their design group to sketch out a plan for building Mirage Atlantic City.

As we all know, the property, budgeted at $1.5B, was never built. For those counting at home this was the fifth false start by MGM in AC and the second property realized for this location by Mirage Resorts. MGM Mirage was pretty serious about this though... the even went so far as to design model hotel rooms AND bathrooms. Fortunately for us casino history fetishists, the man who designed this property - Louis DeSantis - has archived these in his online design portfolio.

Claridge : Now With $20M More Urban Minimalism

The venerable and utterly charming as-is Claridge hotel is scheduled to get a $20 million dollar upgrade, turning the 1929 proto-Beaux Arts skyscraper into an "urban minimalist design" hotel.

On one hand, it's great to see Harrah's Entertainment dumping cash into upgrading Bally's and surrounding properties, but turning the Claridge into the AC equivalent of the Flamingo's "Go Rooms" seems like the wrong way to go, historically.

Neato: Atlantic Beach / AC Gateway Renderings

There it is... the Atlantic Beach & Resort.

Some of you may remember Wally Barr and Curtis Bashaw's AC Gateway project that was planned to be built upon the site of the old Dunes, Sahara, AC High School and a slew of other local property icons.

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Happy Birthday Taj!

» posted by Chuckmonster on 14 Apr 2010

April 2nd was Trump Taj Mahal's 20th birthday.

To celebrate, our dear friend and occasional ACT contributor Dr. Dave Schwartz has put together a great piece tracking the history of the Taj from its earliest days as a glimmer in the eyes of Resorts International all the way up to the first of its many bankruptcy filings.

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Icahn't Haz Cheezytrumpburgers

» posted by Chuckmonster on 12 Apr 2010

Carl Icahn's quest to take over the entire global casino industry has been spayed and neutered by New Jersey bankruptcy Judge Judith Wizmur. Icahn, who recently took over the crumbling assets of Tropicana Resorts & Casinos (including the Trop AC), had his Chapter 11 exit plan takeover of Trump Entertainment Resorts denied in favor of the plan put forth by Avenue Capital Management and Donald Trump.

Yes. That Donald.

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