Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/category/news/business/page/7/)
South Jersey business news for Atlantic City and its surrounding suburbs.
You’ve probably driven or walked by Princeton Antiques Book Shop on Atlantic Ave in Atlantic City. It’s a tall, colorful and eye-catching building with hundreds of books in cases outside. Maybe you’ve even thought about going inside. Apparently, a smattering of locals each week stop in to tell owner Robert Ruffolo just that – that they’ve always wondered what it looks like inside. It is an above-ground catacomb lined with books.
Atlantic City and the surrounding area needs more places and activities for families, according to chiropractor Dr Thomas Miller. The local economy surrounding the resort town has been more stable since casinos brought year-round jobs, but cinemas, bowling alleys and other places for family entertainment disappeared when the casinos arrived, Dr Miller told us in a wide-ranging interview that is part of our series of local business profiles. “If they had places like they did years ago where people could go to a movie, it would be nice,” said Dr Miller, noting that in the summer many potential visitors drive by Atlantic City to stop in Ocean City or Wildwood. “There’s nothing here for people to do,” if they don’t want to gamble, he said. Pleasantville, which has seen its reputation marred by poverty and crime in recent years, is a good spot for business, according to Dr Miller, who has owned his own practice and office in Pleasantville for more than a decade.
The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort is officially closed, but the slot machines are still blinking inside. They spin and whir insolently, kind of the way my laptop takes its sweet time powering down after I’ve slammed the lid shut. I don’t know what you call this stage in the life cycle of a defunct megaresort–a liminal phase maybe–but this is the way a casino dies, apparently, in the small hours of an unseasonably cold Monday morning in early October. The Taj, the alleged Eighth Wonder of the World, and one of the many saviors of Atlantic City foretold by the prophets, passed into oblivion at age 26. It had been in poor health for some time.
Atlantic County has failed to hire a director for a planned million-dollar development corporation, a setback for a wider plan to steer the sluggish regional economy away from an unhealthy dependence on low-wage casino industry jobs. Even after a substantial search this spring and summer, no candidates from outside South Jersey could be drawn in to run the development corp. Instead, Max Slusher, the Atlantic County Improvement Authority’s (ACIA) economic development head, will perform double duty in the role for an interim period, the county’s chief of staff Howard Kyle said in an interview Monday. Although the non-profit development corporation, which should have about $1.2 million when it is fully funded, found candidates for the executive director gig, one turned it down for a better-paid alternative, and another withdrew, apparently because they couldn’t quite be persuaded to move to Atlantic County, Kyle said. Low local salaries and difficulties attracting workers to the county were both issues that were highlighted in a report by Austin, Texas-based consultants Angelou Economics that was commissioned by the ACIA and published a year ago.
Update: An early version of this story said the hearing was October 5.
The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has before it an application for a duplex in Atlantic City. A variance – for a duplex! Sexy! I know. But wait, there’s more.
The infrastructure company that was awarded a contract to design the first building at the Stockton Aviation Research and Technology Park already wants to be paid more. Infrastructure company AECOM was last month granted an additional $41,234.00 for an amended contract worth $738,390.00, according to the minutes of the Atlantic County Improvement Authority’s August meeting. The extra money is needed because when AECOM submitted its original bid, the scope of the project was not yet finalized, according to the minutes. “Therefore, certain assumptions were made, and while some of these assumptions were correct, some were inaccurate,” the minutes state. Among the changes are an allowance to design a “Thunder Room” (a kind of top-notch conference room, apparently) and a roof-top deck.
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.
Friend of the site Dennis Niceler, of the Egg Harbor City Historical Society, sent in this photo of a button, dating from the original casino referendum in the 70s. “At the end of the day, it’s just a reminder of yet another broken promise.”
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.
Glenn Straub, the developer who owns the Atlantic City property formerly known as the Revel casino, and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), are hoping to finish the approval process to reopen the site by the end of September, according to documents filed with CRDA on Wednesday. Straub has been complaining to local media about the drawn-out approval process, while CRDA, which governs planning in Atlantic City’s Tourism District, rejected the earlier application because of concerns about access to the site, since Straub wanted to locate a ropes course in the building’s former main entrance. A successful relaunch for the property is key for cash-strapped Atlantic City and, more widely, for Atlantic County. The Revel property is a top taxpayer and the $2.6 billion site has been a looming empty eyesore on the boardwalk since closing in September 2014. The application that Straub made on appeal includes concessions and suggested changes to the vehicle access to the property.