Casinos are turning profits again in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Plans were announced recently for a $375 million renovation and reopening of the bankrupted Trump Taj Mahal by Hard Rock Casino, and Stockton University just broke ground on a satellite campus.
A luxury apartment complex, the first to be built in Atlantic City in decades, is under construction. The city’s credit rating has improved.
Atlantic City, left for dead for the last 10 years, is having a(nother) revival.
“I always say Atlantic City is like Dracula — you can’t kill it, no matter how hard we try,” quipped state Sen. Jim Whelan, who was mayor of Atlantic City from 1990-2001.
It’s all coming after a decade that featured a 50 percent drop in the city’s casino revenues. Nearly half of the casinos closed and 10,000 people lost their jobs, leading to a massive spike in home foreclosures. The city’s finances were so grim, the state took over control in November.
Atlantic City has been attracting visitors since the 1850s — and its fortunes have been rising and falling ever since.
Now, in April of 2017, Hard Rock International announced plans for a major renovation and rebranding of the failed Trump Taj Mahal, bringing the number of casinos in the city as of next year to eight. It is expected to bring back thousands of jobs.
The Stockton campus project (featured in an earlier REVITALIZATION article) will include a three-story, 56,000 square foot academic building along with a 200,000 square foot residential complex that will house more than 500 students. It is part of The Gateway Project that includes an adjacent six-story office tower for a new South Jersey Gas headquarters.
Created in 1968, Stockton University is a New Jersey state public institution based in Galloway, some 15 miles away. They bill the school as “New Jersey’s Green University” and offer the following degrees: BA, BS, BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts), MA, MS, MBA, DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) and LEAD (Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership).
The campus will on the redeveloped site of the old Atlantic City High School.
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