The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is preparing to sell off some of its Atlantic City real estate holdings, according to documents filed on its website.
“The CRDA seeks an experienced professional firm to market and auction surplus real property owned by the Authority and no longer necessary for its operations,” says the request for proposal. The real estate to be auctioned off ranges from a half-block package in the Inlet with a valuation of $6 million, to a $300 non-buildable alley on North Massachusetts Ave. You can download our searchable and sortable database of the properties here.
It was not immediately clear when the auction would take place. Responses to the RFP are due Oct. 23.
CRDA has come under fire for its expansive collection of tax-exempt Atlantic City properties and vacant lots, particularly as the city’s financial condition worsened in recent years. Through this year, Atlantic City recorded $4.9 billion in city real estate that does not pay taxes and which is not public property, school- or church-owned.
A chunk of that land is owned by CRDA, the New Jersey state authority charged with using Atlantic City’s casino taxes for economic development. The authority says it holds real estate for investment that it values at $193 million.
Most of its land holdings are for projects that are on ice, such as the Atlantic City Marketplace project and an Atlantic City supermarket. (See table below for CRDA’s biggest land holdings assigned to specific projects)
The authority has come under financial pressure of its own in the last two years, since millions of dollars in casino taxes were diverted to bolster the city’s finances. But while the city has auctioned off everything from land to filing cabinets, CRDA has been reluctant to respond to city politicians’ requests it pay taxes on its holdings or sell land. Under a new executive director this year, however, CRDA seems to be taking some steps to improve its bottom line, for instance by cutting jobs earlier this year. (Although the authority offset some of those savings by raising the salaries of many remaining staff members).
CRDA officials were not available on Monday to answer questions about the auction.
| Project Name | Real Estate Value |
|---|---|
| AC Inlet NSA | $1,954,335 |
| AC Supermarket | $6,163,011 |
| Bally's Warehouse Project | $71,574 |
| Carolina Gardens | $823,704 |
| Chelsea Westside | $262,354 |
| Cheseapeake Gardens Senior Homes | $151,383 |
| Cityscape | $66,583 |
| Land Banking | $1,196,804 |
| Lighthouse District Park Project | $3,347,454 |
| Marketplace Land Acquisition | $7,300,000 |
| NEI Consensual Acquisitions | $213,476 |
| Pennsylvania Avenue | $22,062 |
| 2nd Ward Facad | $36,811 |
| S Inlet Land Acquisition | $5,516,914 |
| Southeast Inlet Transportation | $187,085 |
| Virginia Avenue | $133,266 |
| Virginian Acquisition | $444,030 |
| John Brooks Recovery Center | $728,000 |
| TOTAL | $28,618,846 |
This is progress I guess, but it’s so convenient that the CRDA is willing to do this after the state takeover. BTW is the audit of the CRDA finished? It was supposed to conclude in July. The people have a right to know about how the CRDA uses the money they get.
Thanks for the reminder – I just checked and the CRDA audit by the state auditor has still not been published. I am asking for another update.