September 12 was a bad day for those who were hoping to see a new casino built in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On this date, a group of investors who had been planning to build a casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, cancelled those plans. Some suggest that this may be the last planned casino that Atlantic City will see in the foreseeable future.
The planned casino was the brainchild of AC Gateway LLC, who said that they were no longer considering the construction of the hotel-casino which would have gone up on the southern end of the Atlantic City beach. The construction would have also included a music history museum. The company reported that a sluggish local economy and weak casino revenues were the reason for cancelling the project. It was also reported that the project would have been managed by Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Indians of Florida.
According to reports, the first phase would have cost an estimated $465 million. The costs of the second phase of the project have not been released. The casino-hotel was expected to be constructed on the Boardwalk at the foot of Black Horse Pike.
In a statement issued by the company: “Hard Rock International has decided not to move forward with an application for a potential hotel-casino development in Atlantic City, due to current market conditions.” The cancellation took place just a few hours before the company would have had to pay a $1 million application fee with New Jersey. The statement went on to say: “We have been evaluating Atlantic City as a prospective location for a hotel-casino development and have not eliminated this location for a future endeavor.”
Back in 2011, New Jersey began allowing smaller sized casinos to be built. This would have been the first of those. It was reported that the hotel portion of the project would have started with a little over 200 rooms, but would have expanded to 850 rooms in the future.
These smaller casinos were expected to help boost new construction in the area. For five years now, revenues from casinos in the area have been decreasing, thus decreasing the demand for new, larger casinos. The ability for investors to put money into smaller casinos and to then expand those casinos over time is one of the programs main benefits.
State Senator James Whelan, who was once the mayor of Atlantic City, said: “We’re disappointed, but this was not totally unexpected with the market conditions in Atlantic City and the overall state of the economy. Hopefully Hard Rock or someone else will take a look at this model in the future.”
It should be noted that this was not the first company to express interest in constructing smaller facilities. Three other companies had looked into investing in Atlantic City but all declined because of the $1 million deposit that is currently required under the program. No information has been released as to whether or not another company is currently looking into building new facilities in the area.