The Atlantic Club is still up for sale and its owners just modified a $10 million mortgage on their other Atlantic City Boardwalk property, The Claridge. These things are not related, Dale Schooley, director of acquisitions for the owners, TJM, told me yesterday. TJM paid cash for the Atlantic Club, Schooley added.
“We’re going to continue to market the property…the Atlantic Club. The Claridge is not for sale,” Schooley said.
“We’ve got…currently we’re looking at quite a few offers on it,” he said of the Atlantic Club.
We asked, Why has it been standing, empty, for so long?
“It’s a really big piece of property. And it’s expensive. And everybody can’t buy that,” he laughed. “That’s all.
“It’s a great piece of property. It’s in a fabulous location. It’s on the Boardwalk. You’ve got a great beach there. It’s beautiful. Again, it’s just a very big piece of property. The right guy – the right people – have got to come along and it’s going to be sold.”
It’s falling apart. And there have been reports that local demolition companies have had requests for tear-down estimates for the property. Did TJM get a demolition estimate?
“I’m not sure. That would be for the operations guys.”
Is one of the offers for the Atlantic Club still from Stockton University?
“I can’t say that.”
What happened to the Stockton offer?
“It just – you read it in the paper. It just did not work out.”
Has TJM paid the tax liens and outstanding special improvement district fees on the Atlantic Club?
“I couldn’t answer that.”
Stockton University announced it would buy the Atlantic Club from Florida-based TJM shortly after the university found a Florida-based buyer for its Seaview Resort in Galloway Township. The Floridian connection and the short timeline prompted rumors the deals were connected. We searched Florida’s business records and could find no connection between TJM, its directors and related companies, and Seaview’s new owner KDG Capital.
Seaview’s new management told the Press of Atlantic City they are renovating the property and have temporarily laid off 229 staff. There are few details about their plans, however. The title company responsible for the Seaview deed has not yet filed the deed exchange to the county clerk, but a Stockton spokeswoman said yesterday the deed has been transferred. “There was a delay while some language on the property description was clarified,” she added.
People commenting in places like the Press of AC’s comments section like to throw out the term “eyesore” against any building that’s not shiny and new.
But the Atlantic Club/Hilton/Golden Nugget seems like a perfectly usable building, even if it needs repair or some systems need a refresh…as long as the concrete skeleton is OK. The pieces falling off are ornamental or surface, not structural. This happens with all buildings. From a distance, it looks fine. There are a lot older buildings, on and off the island where people live and work.
The sale hinged on the seller getting government money for demolition. I guess that Atlantic Club getting funded for demo would have paved the way for Trump Plaza, whose owners want money to take down.