The Borgata Question and Your Right To Know

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The Borgata question

This morning, Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian and a support team of lawyers are testifying before the Assembly Judiciary Committee in Trenton to try and win support for the city’s recovery plan. The Press of Atlantic City’s Christian Hetrick is providing a rundown on Twitter (@_hetrick) and the deal – which includes agreements on city union contracts, significant cost cuts and no tax increases for five years – seems pretty impressive. The one question hanging over it, as Amy Rosenberg raised in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday, is the extent to which the city’s biggest taxpayer, the Borgata casino, is on board. The Borgata said yesterday it had no agreement with the city – but the casino is prepared to discuss a reduction of the amount the city owes it in taxes it overpaid in previous years. The Borgata, as the city’s advisors well know, doesn’t really trust Atlantic City after long-running litigation over its taxes, and it is apparently waiting for the state’s ruling on the recovery plan.

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More Camping, Fewer Port-A-Johns Coming Soon To Lake Lenape

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The west side of Lake Lenape Park in the Pinelands of Atlantic County is about to get a major refit, with Atlantic County and the Atlantic County Improvement Authority coming together to build a bathhouse and extend the number of camping sites along the water’s edge. The nearly 2,000 acre park is in the pinelands, which means there are additional hurdles to build or develop the area. The only bathroom at the site is at the boathouse at the southern end to the park and visitors to the 18-site campground in the northern section of the park rely on port-a-potties. Still, the $17-a-night sites are in demand throughout the April-November season, and the county’s parks department has been looking to extend camping options for some time. In fact, a plan to extend sewer, water and electricity lines out to the campsite area in the north of the park was part of plans formed two decades ago, said Glen Mawby, director of facilities management for the county.

More about: Government, Homepage Featured, atlantic county, camping, lake lenape, parks

No Joy in Shoobietown

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We drove to Vermont last Friday, nine hours in the car with the kids, as you do, then turned around and drove home and when we got back the seasons had changed. There was an unmistakable charge in the air, big waves thumping into the beaches, and the wind blew steadily, crisply, offshore, to the delight of the surfers. Our rental house filled up with black flies from the salt marshes. They had followed us in the back door when we tried to have dinner on Labor Day outside, and they now take turns attacking my ankles, then copulating on the kitchen table. But underneath the weather, a more palpable change had taken place.

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What’s The Deal With Atlantic City’s Municipal Utilities Authority?

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Remember when Atlantic City needed to borrow $73 million from the state to pay its bills? Well, the Queen of Resorts got her money, but it came with a few strings attached. One involves Atlantic City’s Municipal Utilities Authority, which provides water to more than 8,000 residents, businesses and vacation-home owners.  

The small print of the loan creates a Catch-22 situation for the city and the water authority.  The loan says Atlantic City’s Council must agree by September 15 to an ordinance that would hand over the water authority, in the event the city is unable to pay back the loan. But the loan also says that if City Council can’t agree on that ordinance before September 15, it could wind up handing over the water authority’s assets anyway, since it would be violating its borrowing terms. And some people worry that if the city agrees to the ordinance, it will give the state a chance to seize the water authority assets anyway, even if the city follows the terms of the agreement.

More about: Atlantic City, Homepage Featured, american water, Atlantic City, atlantic city municipal utilities authority, atlantic county, emergency loan, MUA assets

Escalating The Surreality Stakes

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It wasn’t the first time he’d threatened to pack his bags and abandon the Revel. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time he’d threatened to do so this month. But Glenn Straub, the mercurial owner of the $2.4 billion defunct casino at the northeast end of the Atlantic City boardwalk, stormed out of a land-use meeting early Thursday afternoon, amid unspecific accusations of blackmail, saying he would “shut down” the mega-resort, which he bought for pennies on the dollar in 2015, “forever.” Revel is the second-largest building in the state of New Jersey, and the largest god-damned casino hotel in Atlantic City history. It has been closed for more than two years.

More about: Atlantic City, Business, Homepage Featured, Atlantic City, atlantic county, CRDA, Glenn Straub, planning

Mel’s Furniture Optimistic On Outlook For Inlet

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In Atlantic City’s Inlet neighborhood, a lot has come and gone. Mel’s Furniture, at 508 Atlantic Ave, has stayed the course since the 1950s. Philip Weinberg, son of founder Mel Weinberg, recently stopped to talk with us about the prospects for the area. A lot is riding on reviving the northern end of the boardwalk, home to two of the casinos that closed their doors in 2014 (Showboat and Revel) and the Trump Taj Mahal (slated to close this fall), but Weinberg said he is optimistic new owners at the first two properties can turn them around. More important for the furniture business will be the Stockton University campus, which could open in the next two years in the south of Atlantic City, he said.

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Help Needed To Rebuild Atlantic City Memorial Park

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Councilman Kaleem Shabazz, of Atlantic City’s third ward, stoops to pick up a piece of litter and brush away a weed that’s obscuring a memorial plaque. No one else in the park – and there are about two dozen people hanging out under the large shady trees – seems to notice the councilman’s effort. Atlantic City’s government has secured the bulk of the funding it needs to transform the park from a stopping-place for drug users and homeless people into a recreation area for the hundreds of kids living on the neighboring blocks. But the city is seeking about $100,000 from Atlantic County’s open spaces fund for so-called ‘gap’ funding, to allow the city to officially start the project and release the funding from the non-profits and other organizations that are contributing most of the cash. The problem is that Atlantic County has not approved any open-spaces funding requests in the last two years.

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Toms River thrift snaps up Ocean City Home Bank

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OceanFirst Financial Corp, a Toms River-based bank, on Wednesday said it will buy the parent of Ocean City Home Bank for $145.6 million, building on OceanFirst’s South Jersey buying spree after it swallowed up Cape Bank earlier this year. The deal, which will likely close at the end of this year or in the first few months of 2017, will make OceanFirst Bank New Jersey’s No. 4 bank by deposits, according to a press release. The newly combined bank will have $4 billion in loans, $4 billion in deposits and 61 branches from Middletown to Cape May. It was not clear whether there would be branch closures or layoffs as a result of the deal.

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Kirk Kerkorian’s fund starts selling its MGM stock

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The investment company owned by Kirk Kerkorian, who died last year, has begun to sell its stake in MGM Resorts International, under the terms of Kerkorian’s will. The company, called Tracinda Corp, will sell an initial 20 million shares for about $500 million to reduce its stake in MGM Resorts, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Tracinda Corp held a total of about 91 million shares, equivalent to a 16 percent stake, in MGM Resorts according to a filing last June. MGM Resorts last month said it would buy out Boyd Gaming’s stake in Atlantic City’s Bogata and take sole ownership of the city’s outperforming casino.  

More about: Business, Homepage Featured, Atlantic City, Borgata, Boyd Gaming, casino, kerkorian, MGM Resorts