Stockton Seeking Boardwalk Coffee Shop For AC Student Building

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Stockton University is seeking a coffee shop to occupy a boardwalk-fronting retail space in its planned $100-million-dollar student-residence building in Atlantic City, according to a document published on Friday. The University’s request-for-qualifications (RFQ) is the most recent step in the realization of a total $200 million project that is set to bring massive change to the southern end of the city within a couple of years. Prospective tenants must be regional or national brands, with at least five years’ business experience, according to the document (here). The coffee shop will be permitted to sell food that requires ‘limited cooking’ – since the University will be looking for a restaurant operator to move into a larger retail space in the same building. The coffee shop is one of three total retail spaces in the residence building, which is set to become home to 533 students in August 2018.

More about: Atlantic City, acdevco, Atlantic City, devco, Stockton University, students

Stockton In Talks For Atlantic City’s Bader Field

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Stockton University is in “preliminary talks” to develop* some or all of Atlantic City’s Bader Field, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If the university were to occupy the site, it would further extend Galloway-based Stockton’s reach in Atlantic City, where it is building a residential campus, parking garage and academic center scheduled to open in 2018. The university is considering using the Bader Field site for a marine sciences and resiliency center, one of the people said. University President Harvey Kesselman discussed the idea as part of wider plans for the university in a presentation to Stockton foundation board members last week. Kesselman has had talks with Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian about buying* some of the site, one other person said.

More about: Atlantic City, Atlantic City, Bader Field, CRDA, Stockton

Baltimore Grill Sale Close?

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The hot chat Saturday night during our bike bar crawl was that the “Wet Willie’s Consortium” is buying the Baltimore Grill—Atlantic City’s iconic, much beloved and completely miraculous spaghetti-and-pizza restaurant—from the Tarsitanos and Riches, who have owned it for decades. The Baltimore Grill is impossible to describe (for me anyway) objectively. It’s like a scene from Mean Streets (this one) has been lifted out of 1973 and carried forward through time to be dropped down across the street from the school where you went to kindergarten. It’s an institution. Wet Willie’s sells slushies spiked with high-octane rum out of big swirly vats, like you see on Spring Break.

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Meet The People Behind #ThisIsAC

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If you’ve spent any time on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook lately and you’re in the Atlantic City area, you’ve probably come across the bold red logo or seen the hashtag #ThisIsAC. Maybe, like us, you thought it was some marketing effort by one of our many quasi-governmental overlords in these parts. But you, like us, would be wrong. #ThisIsAC was formed by a few people who just really, really care about Atlantic City. We went to meet them.

More about: Atlantic City, Business

Twilight Zone

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 What’s Keeping the South Inlet Empty? In mid-August of last summer a real estate investor from Florida named Bruce Pender bought a small plot of land in the South Inlet neighborhood of Atlantic City. He paid $25,000 to acquire 206 S. Vermont Avenue, tax records show. The old owner, Seaview Property Development of Turnersville, had been sitting on the land since 2005. In real estate terms, this was one of the rarest commodities going: beachfront land about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia—two and a half hours (give or take) from New York City.

More about: Atlantic City, Watchdog Journalism, Atlantic City, beachfront property, CRDA, development, norcross, South Inlet

A Believer Rescues An Atlantic City Apartment Building

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Mark Callazzo might just be the walking embodiment of everybody’s favorite car magnet around here. “AC – Don’t Stop Believing” appears to be the unspoken motto of the guy behind The Iron Room bar and restaurant, who is now close to completing the refurbishment of an entire building the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority had been set to demolish. Studio and one- and two-bedroom Apartments at 1 N. Boston Ave will be available in January, Callazzo said when he took us on a tour of the building earlier this month. You can watch our video from the tour below. “I like Atlantic City, I believe in its future,” Callazzo said, as he walked us around the building, which has views of the Atlantic ocean on one side and the bay on the other.

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Atlantic City Demolitions Climb, Reach Highest Since Financial Crisis

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Atlantic City has demolished 79 housing units this year through September, more than double the rate of demolition in any year since the financial crisis. Public agencies tore down the most buildings, but state data show there have also been some private demolitions, which could indicate more construction will be starting in the city. The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) has demolished more than half of the units as part of its ongoing city-wide demolition project. Another chunk of the units were demolished by the Atlantic County Improvement Authority (ACIA), through an agreement with the city to clear abandoned buildings. The number of units demolished by the public agencies, however, is below the total number of units demolished year to date, which suggests there has also been some private demolition work.

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Atlantic City’s First Legal Distillery Nears Opening

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Atlantic City will soon boast its first ever legal distillery, thanks to brothers Eric and Mark Ganter. The Little Water Distillery may not be the first to ever produce spirits in the city, but it will be the first to do so with federal and state licenses. The distillery, which began life as a family daydream after Eric and Mark’s dad received a still for his birthday in 2013, will launch an American whisky dubbed WHITECAP around December 15, just in time for those of us who failed to do all our holiday shopping this past weekend. The whisky is the result of a collaboration with a distillery in the Appalachian mountains that the Ganter brothers struck up a friendship with during their multi-year process to launch their Atlantic City site. The name is a play on the white caps of the mountains and the Atlantic ocean, Eric Ganter explained.

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Socktober Surprise

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Students at Frog Pond Elementary School in Little Egg Harbor donated 821 pairs of socks to Covenant House, a homeless shelter for homeless youth, in Atlantic City earlier this month. The idea to collect the socks came fromKerry Gunn, who teaches fifth grade at the school and showed her students a facebook video by Kid President Robby Novak, who pointed out that socks (according to some metrics) are among the most-needed and least-donated clothing items. Gunn said she presented the idea to her fellow fifth-grade teachers who supported it. “We called this service project, ‘Socktober–Kids Helping Kids,’” she said, in a statement. In response to a series of questions (“Who donated the most socks? Why’d that person have so many socks?

More about: Atlantic City, Education, Voices