Is Atlantic City Dead
The Revel Hotel and Casino—better known as the Jersey Shore's last, desperate attempt to hide its stale cigarette smell with a spritz of cloying eau de toilette—lost big today. The still-shiny-and-new $2.5 billion property plans to shut down next month, confirming once and for all that the Atlantic City dream is dead.
Four dead bodies of women identified as prostitutes were found in a drainage ditch filled with shallow water on November 20, 2006 behind the Golden Key Motel on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, situated on the outskirts of Atlantic City, New Jersey. All of them were placed face down in a row, facing east, about sixty feet apart from each other. Police in Atlantic City say the death of a woman from Philadelphia Wednesday night has been ruled a suicide. An investigation conducted by detectives with the Atlantic City Police Department's Criminal Investigations Section says the woman jumped from an upper level of the Ocean Casino Resort parking garage. Atlantic City Double-Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, Another Wounded. 70-Year-Old Atlantic County Man Sentenced For Sexually Assaulti. The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit is investigating a double shooting that killed an Atlantic City man and wounded another, authorities said. Atlantic City Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Wounded: Police. An Atlantic City man was killed Monday afternoon in a double shooting that wounded another Atlantic City man, authorities said. Trump Plaza was the last of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014, victims of an oversaturated casino market both in the New Jersey city and in the larger northeast. There were 12 casinos at.
When the Revel opened its doors just two years ago, it billed itself as a glittering resort oasis along the shore's seedy boardwalk in an unsuccessful attempt to lure visitors away from other gambling epicenters like Las Vegas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Morgan Stanley, which originally backed the casino, ended up taking a billion dollar loss in 2010, washing its hands of the property. But after two bankruptcies, no qualified buyers emerged (Potential offers ranged between $20 million and $250 million) and the shell of a resort finally put itself out of its misery today, announcing a mid-September closing date.
Part of the problem in luring a buyer were the insane upkeep costs, Gothamist reports:
There are property taxes, and they're hooked into this power station with the local gas company, and those two bills are $6 million a month,' the source said. 'So there's $72 million a year before you turn a card. That's the kind of nut you're gonna have to have somebody come in and wrestle with and still be able to have a profitable operation.'
More than 3,000 people are expected to lose their jobs when the Revel shuts down next month. And that number could jump as high as 6,000—the Trump Casino also expects to close for good in September, joining the Showboat Casino, which went out of business this month and the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, which closed in January.
Atlantic City Police Officer
Atlantic City is dead. Long live Atlantic City.
Is Atlantic City Dying
[image via AP]