Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/author/elinor-comlay/page/10/)
Atlantic City’s real estate market has had a relatively busy spring so far. A shell company earlier this month spent $510,000 on an Atlantic City building that includes a Pacific Ave storefront and apartments, the Best Western has a new mortgage and a Stockton donor has acquired two beach-block lots from the Atlantic Club.
In the bowels of the former Trump Plaza, there are dumpsters filled with armchairs and other soft furnishings. The owner – billionaire Carl Icahn – looks to be getting rid of every last thread of his remaining Atlantic City property.
Got a bike that’s suffering from rust because of the tough Absecon Island climate? We spoke to the owner of AAAA Bike Shop in Ventnor, Mike Wiesen, about how to protect your bike from rust or clean up an already-rusty one. Also – read Nanette LoBiondo of Downbeach Pilot on AAAA Bike Shop’s 40th anniversary.
Have you used our events calendar? Do you find it useful? What about the featured events in the Route 40 Roundup newsletter?
We started the events calendar on our site because, as residents, we found it hard to find event listings locally online. We hoped we could create a comprehensive-enough calendar that would provide a useful service. But some recent changes have made it no longer feasible to continue in its current form.
A New Jersey audit of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority that begun almost two years ago is finally nearing completion. The office of the state auditor will send its report to CRDA on May 21 and it will be made public around June 11, after the Authority has had time to make an official response. CRDA, based in Atlantic City, controls more than $300 million in assets and is one of New Jersey’s most important entities.
Not SAFER
The state doesn’t want Atlantic City to apply for federal grants that would pay for some of its firefighters’ salaries, David Danzis reports for The Press. My memory might be getting foggy, but I remember last year’s incarnation of state overseers also objected to the use of federal money to pay for municipal firefighters. The state says that the federal grants don’t cover 100 percent of new hires’ salaries and the city would be on the hook down the road. But the grants can be rolled over, so turning down the chance to apply doesn’t make a whole lot of immediate sense to me, unless it’s about reducing the state’s future pension liability, which – I think that horse bolted. PSEG Files
Meanwhile, on the topic of state funds…
Mini-Golf Scope Softening
The great Margate mini-golf war is settled, declares the Inquirer. Changes included lowering the course’s “cave structure” and softening “the project’s overall scope”, according to Margate businessman Ed Blumenthal who brokered the deal. Soccer
Atlantic City’s only pro-sports team is gearing up for its debut – we caught up with players and the team’s development director yesterday. Read our story and watch the video here. Garces
The top chef behind restaurants in the Atlantic City Tropicana is being sued in Philadelphia by investors who want to remove him from having managerial control of three restaurants (Amada, Village Whiskey, and Tinto), the Inquirer reports.
Under overcast skies as gale-force winds blew across the bay, a group of soccer players from as near to home as Somers Point and as far afield as South America and Europe ran drills and bantered on Atlantic City turf yesterday.
“Chinaman” likes to walk down Ventnor Ave to take advantage of the Heineken special at one of the stores in Lower Chelsea. He was wearing this hat the other day so we asked him the story. His landlady brought it back from Chinatown in New York, he said. She goes there once a week. The other weekend, we saw Chinaman outside Mino’s and he gave our kids some wrapped hard candies.
Developers Curtis Bashaw and Craig Wood have ended their business relationship. Bashaw told the New Jersey Economic Development Authority of the relationship change in a request to restructure two defaulted loans.