The abandoned boardwalk property that previously housed the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel will be used again, but not as a gambling venue. The property will instead be remade into luxury condominiums.
The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel shut down in January 2014, taking 8,000 jobs with it, and created a chain reaction of resorts that closed down in Atlantic City. That same year, three other casinos in the New Jersey beachfront gaming town ceased operations. They include the Showboat, Trump Plaza, and Revel. The Trump Taj Mahal also shut down two years after that, in October 2016.
The Atlantic Club property is finally getting some use after almost nine years since exiting the Boardwalk casino. According to reports, the current owner of the property, Rocco Sebastiani, and his real estate firm, Colosseo Development Group Inc., were making plans to turn the former casino hotel into a condominium complex.
Sebastiani revealed that the conversion of the property had already begun; however, more information would be announced in mid-December. This includes images of what the luxurious condos would look like, and it would all be available after parts of the construction plan were approved by the city.
There is not much known about the current condition of the interior of the building; however, in recent years, its exterior was cited for several safety violations. In 2017, the Atlantic Club’s ceiling collapsed.
During the next spring, several exterior hotel sections crumbled onto the Broadwalk underneath. The incident endangered the safety of pedestrians and drew concerns about the overall condition of the former casino structure.
A spokesperson for Atlantic City named Alexxus Young revealed that Sebastiani’s company Colosseo still owed the city around $630,000 in back taxes for the property. The Atlantic Club property also reportedly has multiple tax liens.
When the Atlantic Club began operations, it was known as the Golden Club and was built by Steve Wynn. The casino started functioning in 1980 and soon became a regular spot for famous people like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. to go to.
Wynn eventually tired of New Jersey politics and left the Atlantic City gaming scene. In 1987, the businessman’s Mirage Resorts sold the hotel-casino to Bally Manufacturing, and the name was changed from the Golden Club to Bally’s Grand.
In 1996 it was once again sold to Hilton Hotels and renamed Atlantic City Hilton. It was renamed ACH Casino Resort after Hilton ended its licensing agreement with Colony Capital. The casino fell into difficult times as gaming began expanding to different states on the East Coast and was rebranded as Atlantic Club in 2012.
The casino hotel was purchased for $23.4 million by Caesars Entertainment and Tropicana Entertainment which is now defunct after closing in 2014. Tropicana purchased the slot machines, player database, and table games of the firm while Caesars held onto the physical property.
Florida-based development company TJM Properties bought the property a few months later for $13.5 million and held on to it till 2019. Colosseo got its hands on the Atlantic Club property after TJM sold it, but the sales price was not revealed.
During its sale, Atlantic City Casino was given to Colosseo under an anti-gambling deed restriction imposed by the property’s previous owner, Caesar’s Entertainment. This kept the new owners from operating slots or other gambling games on the site.
Several plans have been proposed for the property over the past years, including one put forward by the R&R Development Group of Ventnor. The project was submitted in 2017 and suggested that the former gaming venue be turned into an indoor water park. The deal, however, fell through.
Stockton University also considered buying the hotel to expand its campus in Atlantic City but was ultimately unable to. The developers reportedly did not give the university as much time as they requested.
Due to how often proposals have fallen through, the odds of the luxurious condos being built are vague. Next month, however, will give a much clearer vision of the plan if the project is approved.