ATLANTIC CITY, NJ | Revel Casino | 710 feet| 47 Floors
 

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...y_megac-1.html

Morgan Stanley plans Atlantic City mega-casino

By PHIL ROURA
August 31st 2007


For years, people have gambled on Morgan Stanley. Now, they'll be able to gamble with Morgan Stanley in Atlantic City.

After months of speculation, the investment giant announced plans to build a $2 billion mega-casino on 20 acres north of the Showboat. When finished, it will be the tallest building on the Boardwalk.

Plans now call for two 48-story towers, each with 1,900 rooms. But Kevin DeSanctos, head of Revel Entertainment, the company set up to build and run the casino, says "whether it will be one tower or two will depend on our needs."

"We will start pile drivings in November," DeSanctis tells the Daily News. "Our intention is to open in 2011 and become a destination resort where people not only stay overnight but remain for two, three, four days and even longer. We're seeking a fairly broad customer base. We want to offer a great product at an affordable price."

The new resort hasn't been named, but plans include:

168,610 square feet of gaming space.

500,000 square feet of entertainment and retail space.

A 5,500-seat theater.

Atlantic City's first casino wedding chapel.

"We're right there on the beach, so we think this is a place where a lot of folks will like to come and get married," said DeSanctis.

Nothing more romantic than getting married in front of homeless people, hookers, and degenerate gamblers.

^ Ha! Yeah, Atlantic City's image since gambling was introduced sure is night and day from what it used to be.

Like Biff's alternate 1985 Hill Valley really. Sad.

Yeah, and that's just on the inside, right?...:haha:

Anyway, AC could use an image makeover.

There's a reason they built a tunnel to get from the Atlantic City Expressway to the Borgata.

Another casino in Atlantic City? Built by a financial institution? Weird times.

The wedding facility at the Pier @ Ceasars just opened as is booked for two years at least for Saturdays. AC is changing. Another boutique hotel announced today. A couple more in the works.

http://www.globest.com/news/992_992/.../164012-1.html

Mega-Resort Starts Permit Process

By Eric Peterson

ATLANTIC CITY-The overall gaming numbers may continue to weaken here, but the next big hotel/casino project is taking a step forward anyway. Revel Entertainment’s proposed mega-project for 20 boardwalk/oceanfront acres has entered the permitting process with an application for a state Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit. Revel has simultaneously filed a site plan application with this city’s planning division.

As reported by GlobeSt.com, Revel Entertainment, headed by long-time casino exec Kevin DeSanctis, first unveiled very general plans for the site in April. The two permit applications just filed flesh out those plans a bit more, spelling out a proposal for two hotel towers with 1,900 rooms each. Also part of the plan is a total of 150,000 sf of casino space and upwards of 500,000 sf of retail, dining and entertainment space.

“The submission of our Cafra and city planning applications are important milestones, because with their approval we will have established the appropriate regulatory framework to obtain the building permits necessary to start construction,” says DeSanctis, who founded the locally based Revel in 2006. “We look forward to continuing our work with local and state authorities and gaming regulators to develop a distinctive beachfront casino entertainment resort.

“It will help define the future of Atlantic City, while creating jobs, tax revenues and other sustainable economic benefits for the region,” he says. The site itself is at the northern end of this city’s oceanfront, and features more than 1,000 feet of beach frontage. As reported by GlobeSt.com, Morgan Stanley subsidiary Ventura AC owns the property, and Morgan Stanley is provided substantial financial backing for the yet-to-be-named project.

And the hotel towers could become the tallest building in the state, topping the current champ, the 781-foot Goldman Sachs tower in Jersey City. Earlier this year, the city council raised the site’s height limit from 485 feet to 800 feet, and the towers are expected to hit that number.

Revel has also lined up its design and construction team for the project. On board are Tishman Construction Corp. as construction manager, Arquitectonica as design architect, BLT Architects as executive architect and architect of record, and SOSH Architects as associate architect.

Two 800 footers in AC...that would be a site to see. I think at least one 800 footer will happen.

I'll be fine with Atlantic City regaining the NJ height crown as long as Jersey City soon cooks up its own plans to top that number as well.

Cool, just what the city needs!

This one may be taller, but a larger development planned by MGM provides competition...

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ | Revel Casino | 710 feet| 47 Floors
 

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,1499479.story


ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The newest addition to Atlantic City's skyline will be a twin-tower mega-casino that appears as if it were sculpted by ocean waves.

Revel Entertainment Group unveiled designs Wednesday for its $2 billion casino to be built on the Boardwalk next to the Showboat Hotel-Casino, and said the project will debut earlier than had been planned. .

[...]

...The first phase of the project calls for a single tower with 1,800 to 1,900 rooms. When a second tower is built, that number would rise to 3,800 to 3,900 rooms.

It will offer 150,000 square feet of casino space, and 500,000 square feet of dining, retail and entertainment space.


http://www.revelentertainment.com/im...-Exterior5.jpg

I love this proposal and I hope it gets built this would do wonders for atlantic city, everytime I am down there, I wish for something of this magnitude.

It will look good from the ocean city boardwalk at night.

thats one big macked out mickey d's on the lower levels.

very nice. very exciting. Where on earth is Atlantic City going to get all the construction workers for all these mega projects? Florida I guess. And where will they all live? Atlantic City is going to be this country's biggest boom town in the next 10 years.

NJ is a very populated state. There are construction crews abound here.

Unfortunately, AC won't be getting much benefit from these new casino deals. Atlantic County and Cape May County will. A solid majority of the employees in AC don't live anywhere near there. They are bussed into the city from parking areas out on the Atlantic City Expressway.

Beautiful complex, though. Soon there will be a constant skyline from the Marina to the Boardwalk.

And Flisss, what exit? :haha:

Used to be exit 166. :cheers:




Here's the plan for the MGM Grand between Harrah's and the Borgata


http://graphics.boston.com/resize/bo..._0429/410w.jpg

Somehow I miss the good old times when casinos used to have tons of neon lights and signs, rollercoasters and roman or egyptian shopping malls.

But at least the architure of the hotel towers has improved a lot since the Excalibur days.

What a beautiful proposal. I like this one a lot. Good for A.C. :tup:

600 feet i'm guessing.

very nice AC- looking forward to looking at all this grand development. ah NJ is turning around quite nicely

Atlantic City is on a roll. Here's an earlier thread for this one:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=137153

You guessed low. Each of the 710-foot towers will have 1,936 hotel rooms.

Looks great. Good for Atlantic City if they continue to make cash off the ever-aging Baby Boomer population.

When are the mgm project and this project going to begin construction?

are they going to do something with museum pier?..the pier right in front of it.

Well Revel is starting construction later this month. It was recently approved so it's a go. MGM needs to go through the approvals process which moves pretty quickly ( I think Revel took 2-3 months), but never had a project like this. Once approved their timeline is up to them.

As far as the baby boomer comment. That's been the cash cow for AC for years and that's not going to change but the demo is skewing younger. Slots are down and table games are up. Al Martino and David Brenner have been replaced by Foo Fighters and Chris Rock at the venues.

Construction is next to tourism as the area's biggest industry. The amount of growth in the surrounding communities has been impressive. The labor is there.

I'll get some pictures soon as they start up. I have to go to the next door at the House of Blues for work a couple times a month.

Amazing, can't wait to see Atlantic City next summer and see its skyline.

Exit 166 :omg: now that's bennyland if i've ever heard of it.
Exit 100 here :cool: 'cept now i'm a benny too.

I love AC - and I don't even gamble.

AC had (and still has) an opporunity to integrate the casinos into the urban fabric much better than they have been. As it stands, the Borgata is the only casino you can't walk to.

To me, the future of AC is about being a casino town, a beach town, and a walkable, urban place all in one. It seems like, and i don't know if this is already the case but now is the time to focus on Atlantic Ave. in terms of shoring up the retail/restaurant and residential environment. It just screams at you from the Marina to Ventnor "condos, lofts, apartments, shops!" I think "the Walk" really dropped the ball there by not even leaving the option to build up.

And they keep dropping the ball with things like light rail. Instead of agreening to inter-island light rail they keep wanting to study light rail to the airport when all they have to do is build a new station for the commuter rail line they already have and run more frequent service between AC and Egg Harbor City. Or they talk about ridiculous, aerial tram BS. Or the jitney operators go nuts.

(OTOH, by one very conservative estimate, in 30-35 years the island should be completely inundated 2-3 times a year during major storms and it should be breached in 50 years. so i'm not sure how smart any major investments are. I'm in the planning field and no one ever wants to talk about global warming or energy insecurity)

That's terrible. People should live close to where they work. Besides being more environmentally friendly, it cuts down on commuting times.

There are so many vacant lots inland just within a stone's throw from those casinos, they should build housing on them.

Its actually more environmentally friendly the way they have it set up now.

Yes, they could build houses, but most of the employees don't want to live in AC. AC has alot of crime, the schools suck, and its a tourist spot. I would not want to live there, even if I did work there. Why live on a "residentially" crappy island when the mainland is so much nicer?

So instead of having everyone drive in and conjest the highways (only 2 major ones going into AC), they have them park and mass-commute on in.

Exit 100 here myself. :)

Well said about AC.

More and more younger skewing bands are doing AC. There are enough venues around that the bands can find dates, and the mid-size venues can be filled easily by out of towners and the younger generation living in Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May counties. Vegas skewed as a family destination for a while, and then found out it wasn't working. AC might be finding it's niche in the 17+ crowd. Only time will tell.

Really? To be fair i lived in a few places between Point Pleasant and Oceanport but Bradley Beach and Allenhurst were two of them.

http://www.nj.com/business/times/ind...940.xml&coll=5

A.C. revels in plans for casino
New site's preliminary approval gets company closer to winning deal

November 08, 2007
BY JUDY DeHAVEN


It seems casino companies are always touting multibillion-dollar plans for Atlantic City.

But Revel Entertainment is the one putting the shovel in the ground. And it's doing so without the usual fanfare.

Yesterday, the company, headed by former Penn National chief operating officer Kevin DeSanctis and backed by Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley, gave the public its first peak at what Atlantic City's 12th and newest resort will look like as it went before the city's planning board for preliminary site approval of its project.

The drawings show two thin silver towers that will be the tallest in A.C., with an elevated podium in between, landscaped with greenery and lots of water. Atlantic City is, after all, a beach town, and Revel hopes to capitalize on that with cabanas, an indoor and outdoor pool and nightclubs overlooking and facing the beach. It also will have a private beach heated with fire pits during the winter.

City and state officials hope Revel's project will be the start of a $10 billion building boom that will include a $2 billion casino from Pinnacle Entertainment on the former Sands casino site and a $5 billion resort from MGM Mirage next to Borgata. A fourth, from Wally Barr, former Park Place Entertainment CEO, and Curtis Bashaw, former executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, also is in the works next to Hilton.

"This is very significant for the city," A.C.'s Planning Director William Crane said in an interview after the meeting. "It's the next step up from Borgata. And it should be something that sets the bar a little higher in helping the city develop as a destination resort."

Borgata was the last new Atlantic City casino to open -- in July 2003.

The preliminary site plan approval allows Revel to start work on piles and foundations and was the first in a series it needs before it starts major construction. The company also expects to receive final approval of its redevelopment agreement with the city today.

But crews, which have already done prep work on the site, will start major construction without the usual dog-and-pony groundbreaking ceremony.

"We're very excited that we can start our foundations and footings, but at the same time, we have a long road ahead of us," DeSanctis said. "And there will be an appropriate milestone in which to really celebrate."

To be sure, some details are still being hammered out. Like the price tag. In recent months, DeSanctis said the casino would be in the $2 billion range. Yesterday, he said it was going to cost less than MGM Mirage's proposal but more than Pinnacle's.

Revel also needs project financing. Currently, the company is operating from interim financing provided by Morgan Stanley, although the privately held company has not divulged details. DeSanctis said he expects to go out for full project financing during the first quarter of 2008. He did not seem worried the turmoil of the credit markets would hurt his chances. And he said the resort's opening has been pushed up, to late 2010, from 2011.

The 20-acre site -- one of the largest contiguous plots in Atlantic City -- is next to Showboat along the Boardwalk. Crane, the planning director, said he was pleased to see Revel incorporated the beach into its Boardwalk entrance -- the opposite of what Boardwalk casinos did when they opened more than 20 years ago and designed the casinos to keep people inside gambling. Revel's resort will have 1,000 feet of beach frontage.

The casino -- a total of 150,000 square feet, smaller only than Bally's -- will have 40-foot ceilings with a mezzanine level. And while two towers with roughly 1,900 rooms each are planned, DeSanctis said the second may not be built initially but could come later.

As Atlantic City is trying to differentiate itself from slot parlors in neighboring states, Revel's plans also include a lot of non-gambling items, like shops, a 5,500-seat theater and a spa. DeSanctis said it was designed to be more of a resort with a casino than a traditional casino with a few restaurants and bars.

He said while conceptualizing the project, he thought of it as a big party room. Hence the company name, Revel.

"What are we trying to accomplish?" he asked. "The whole concept of having a party. And that's what revel means. (We wanted) to created a really great experience to make people say, 'Oh man, this is going to be fun.'"

More here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140941

For a city/metro if its size AC does have really high transit ridership.

I def. think AC has enough cachet now that it's ready to start doing a little more as far as residential construction is concerned. I think having light rail or at least some form of BRT connecting Brigantine with AC, Ventnor, Margate, and possibly Ocean City and definitely back to park'n'rides on the mainland - would get that kick-started.

As far as the schools go, most big cities have relatively shitty school systems (compared to the suburbs that surround them) and for the most part it's not people with kids that are filling up most downtowns - it's the bookend demographic. One of them, the baby-boomers, is the fastest growing segment of the population.

Anyway - a few pics from Atlantic Ave. and "the Walk" along Michigan Ave. (it connects the train station/convention center with the Boardwalk). It's not like it's some bombed out shell of a city and I think most people can see the potential.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...c%20City/7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...c%20City/6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...c%20City/5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...c%20City/3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/7fdd16cc.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...y/dd62fd92.jpg

the Walk outlet shops.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...c%20City/4.jpg

[QUOTE=newboldphilly;3166624]For a city/metro if its size AC does have really high transit ridership.

I def. think AC has enough cachet now that it's ready to start doing a little more as far as residential construction is concerned. I think having light rail or at least some form of BRT connecting Brigantine with AC, Ventnor, Margate, and possibly Ocean City and definitely back to park'n'rides on the mainland - would get that kick-started.

As far as the schools go, most big cities have relatively shitty school systems (compared to the suburbs that surround them) and for the most part it's not people with kids that are filling up most downtowns - it's the bookend demographic. One of them, the baby-boomers, is the fastest growing segment of the population.

Anyway - a few pics from Atlantic Ave. and "the Walk" along Michigan Ave. (it connects the train station/convention center with the Boardwalk). It's not like it's some bombed out shell of a city and I think most people can see the potential.

QUOTE]


I have a house on the island and they used to have rail (trolly)service that went downbeach to Margate, Ventnor and Longport along Atlantic Ave and got rid of itback in the 70s I belive. I don't think you'll ever see that again. None of the mentioned towns even allow weekly rentals of the homes (which they did back then) only Seasonal so most of the people either live all year or are summer residents. Also there's no way Margate or Longport would allow it, it's just not in their nature. They don't even let the Jitney's which have to do a U-Turn in Ventnor. There is ample parking at the casinos and revel, MGM and Pinnacle will have designated lots for employees. Not to mention the bad blood between the two towns which are fighting over a bulkhead being built that's gotten really ugly.

NJ transit has a good bus program on the Island though that goes to the Casinos to Longport.

That being said there's no way any light rail will go to Ocean City just for the expense and the unwilliness the town is to spend public money. Getting them to agree to redoing the bridge was a tough process.

Did you snap any pics of the new Taj tower. That's going up quite fast.

People don't want to live in AC and most people can't afford to live in Margate, Ventnor and Longport. The AC High School isn't even on the island anymore.

AC is working on their traffic patterns and will have the new traffic senstive lights being installed soon. The traffic on the AC expressway, Black Horse Pike and WHite Horse Pike is no where near as bad as it is on GSP once you get pass exit 7. Also there are discussing making Pacific Avenue one way to keep the traffic flowing (although the Jitney Assoc is strongly against this and they have political pull crazy enough)

AC still has tons of buildable land a few blocks inland in Ducktown and the Back Bay and I would disagree and say that the Walk is in the perfect location since that is where the train & bus terminals are and where the Convention Center is. Last week with the Teacher convention the stores along the Walk where mobbed. People walk from convention center to the casinos and AC would rather have them walk pass stores than residences. This isn't a chicken vs egg. You need to give people other reasons to come other than slot machines before you build more residences and that's what the plan is.

Some places like Bella Condos have had a tough time filling and if beach front condos can't sell why would anyone want to live at the AC Expressway exit where the walk is instead. Once the light rail comes in from the AC airport and NYC it'll be an even better location. People now take the train from Philly, Cherry Hill and Lindenwold just to shop.

You can't argue with the success of the Walk. Phase III is underway with more parking and more stores. Since it's opened two years ago only one store, London Fog, and one restaurant IHOP have closed and neither were good fits anway.

municipalities in NJ don't pay for transit or for new transit services. The state vis-a-vis NJTransit picks up half the tab and the federal gov't usually picks up the other half. There are rare exceptions to the 50/50 split, one being the RiverLINE in Burlington Co.

As far as condos go . . . the condo market is bad right now pretty much every where. It's also that luxury anything in AC is fairly new, these things tend to snowball. AC's cachet is also relatively new (post-Borgata). The market right now is $200k to sub $500k. That's what should be on the market in AC right now not $750k and up units - but when you look in AC that's all you find. The top of the market and the bottom of the market and hardly anything between. The fact that AC is doing much better than Philly or anywhere else in NJ shows the strength of the market there.

People in Egg Harbor Township might not want to live in AC. People in Voorhees aren't deserting that town for Philly. The same goes with any city. They're not the target market.

Amazing project, thanks for the info.

My point was more to those who thought they should have built residental structures by the Walk and how knowing the history of the district in question.

Also I understand about who foots the bill for Transit. My point is that it would be unwanted and unneeded in Ventnor, Margate and Longport. I think the person who wrote about light rail didn't realize there were already options on island. Many of the same residents who live on the Island are the same that voted to get rid of the trolley back in the 70s the bus system is works fine.

But I would disagree slightly with the target market. Camden County has been a big success as far as marketing for myself. I did casino marketing for a long time and now serve as a consultant for the Casinos and some real estate interests in Atlantic County. I've done a lot of insertions in the Camden Country area and find they are more interested in AC real estate than most counties on the other side of the river.

The problem people have living in AC is that most the people who gamble can get comps and stay for free. So if you can afford $500k for a condo chances are you are $350+ a trip player and get comped rooms, food and shows. Why would you pay for something that you already get for free? Don't forget that 80-90% of the hotel rooms are comped. So the market for AC upscale condo real estate are wealthy unrated players, which is an oxymoron. That's the challenge I have when marketing real estate in AC. That and the city can't support an actual supermarket or movie theater (not including imax) :-)






Sorry to get off topic.

$2B. Revel casino wins key state Environmental approval
 

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/t...-7417098c.html

(Published: November 19, 2007)

2:40 p.m. Update -


ATLANTIC CITY - Revel Entertainment Group has secured a key environmental permit for its proposed $2 billion megacasino on a 20-acre oceanfront site, the company said Monday.


The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection approved a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act permit for the casino hotel. The permit, required for major construction projects in coastal areas, was the most stringent environmental regulation faced by Revel.


In the past two weeks, Revel has also received preliminary site plan approval from the Atlantic City Planning Board and entered into a development agreement with City Council.


"Over the last year, Revel has made significant progress in advancing its plan to develop a unique resort entertainment casino project," Kevin DeSanctis, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement announcing approval of the CAFRA permit.


With permit in hand, Revel plans to begin work soon on the footings and foundation work. The casino is scheduled to open in the second half of 2010 on a site overlooking the Boardwalk between Oriental, Connecticut and Metropolitan avenues.


Revel recently unveiled architectural renderings for two hotel towers containing 1,900 rooms each, 150,000 square feet of casino space and 500,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment attractions. Amenities would include a spa, a 5,000-seat events center and Atlantic City's first Las Vegas-style casino wedding chapel.


The company still must decide whether to build both hotel towers simultaneously or open with just one and add the second later on based on market conditions. At 700 feet high, the Revel towers would be the tallest buildings in Atlantic City.


Known only as "Revel," the casino will feature an ocean theme to take advantage of the site's 1,000 feet of beachfront land. The interior part of the complex, tucked in between the hotel towers, will have a curvy facade as though sculpted by waves.


Revel, an upstart gaming company, has partnered with Wall Street investment giant Morgan Stanley for the huge casino. Revel's project will be Atlantic City's 12th casino if it opens in 2010. Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. and MGM Mirage Inc. have plans for new casinos opening in 2011 or 2012.

- Donald Wittkowski

Why did you quote me? I'm not sure what you are trying to say. I was talking about employees of casinos.

I agree with what you are saying about the Walk but I was talking about an entirely different subject.

Revel (Morgan Stanley) today, Nov 24

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9711/ac1za1.th.jpg

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/734/ac2xa2.th.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/5635/ac3sy8.th.jpg

The last trolleys ran on the island in the mid 50's. The routes were replaced with buses by the trolley companies because they were cheaper. The companies couldn't justify the expense of maintenance of way in the face of declining ridership.

I know the buses are fine but light rail is about economic development as much as it is about moving more people than buses.

I think it's safe to say at this point that AC is about more than casinos now and that people from all over NJ (and NYC and Philly) are heading there just as much for the restaurants, shopping, nightclubs, and in the summer, the beach as they are for the casinos.

Getting that grocery store, getting those basic "conveniences" of the suburbs requires a critical mass of residents (residents with money) and it's quite chicken and egg. AC is never going to get those things if the RE market is only targeting gamblers. I have friends and relatives on the mainland - all in their mid-20's to mid-30's and they all say they would live in the city if there was anything going on off the Boardwalk (and they don't mean the Borgata). They're not alone. The book-end demographics are crying out for AC to be something more than casinos and, so far, it's only stumbling in that direction.

Honestly, I don't think the goal is ever make Atlantic City more than a resort town that is primarily casino driven. I'm in my mid-30s myself and have worked at a few of the casino's marketing departments and now deal with casino executives on a daily basis and living in AC isn't a priority for them or anyone really.

REMEMBER The goal for the AC Casinos is to sway gamblers away from Philly and NY Slots with other stuff to do, but the focus is still and will always be gaming. The idea is... we want you to gamble here because we have more to do when you're not gambling. The people are coming for more than the gambling but they are still coming for the gambling (90% of the rooms on Summer weekends are comps or otherwords gamblers).

Many of those 40+ who grew up on the island couldn't wait to get off the island which is why towns like EHT is such a growing community, much better schools, better city government etc. Now offshore it's the place to go for young familes (25-40) and that's not going to change. It's a 10 minute drive to their offices in AC but they can have a front and backyard. Development-wise, I don't think most people realize how small AC is since they never get off the boardwalk, but much of it near the back bay and inlet has already been redeveloped over the like 15 years. They are already demolishing residental units for commercial development at other areas of the town. No one will want to live in the shadows of the Borgata or MGM. Traffic and noise is already crazy on friday and Sunday nights.

The condo development in town is all about 2nd homes and or vacation homes. Now as a marketing consultant I'm working with two real estate companies and this is all about weekend and summer residents. If you are not a gambler and love the Jersey Shore or have kids; AC just isn't the place and will never try to be. They are already reducing the number of kids in schools and consoladate which they have been doing.

As a fan of skyscrapers the best thing for AC is for the continued and rapid commercial growth. I love all these projects

oh yeah, i forgot that the casinos decide what happens in AC. No really, i understand what your take on the situation is - basically: AC is a dump, except for the casinos and what the casinos build around them as extra-gambling entertainment, so no one with a choice would want to live there and when people do buy residential units it's to use as a vacation house for when one visits the casinos or perhaps in the summer to visit the casino and relax on the beach.

Families with children make up about 1/3 of all households and shrinking. The other 65% of the population doesn't really care about the school system. You're using the same arguments that people have used to say that no one will move to Center City, no one will move to Asbury Park, no one will move to Jersey City. They've all been wrong. Even Asbury, which was/is way more of a dump than AC (i grew up there) is going through a condo boom. It doesn't have any of the amenities that AC does.

I agree with the person above me that everyone was wrong about how no one wanted to move to Asbury and Jersey City and now they are booming places, like AC. We all know that AC is a little dumpy outside of the casinos but they are trying to change that with great redevelopment projects. All of the residential projects that are on the boardwalk and are in the shadows of the Borgota and MGM will do very well for themselves. Things in AC will change and wont be so dumpy and not nice as what someone said. Hey who knows, maybe the schools will get better to once theres more tax money being dumped into the schools from the new residential projects

[QUOTE=newboldphilly;3191692]oh yeah, i forgot that the casinos decide what happens in AC. No really, i understand what your take on the situation is - basically: AC is a dump, except for the casinos and what the casinos build around them as extra-gambling entertainment, so no one with a choice would want to live there and when people do buy residential units it's to use as a vacation house for when one visits the casinos or perhaps in the summer to visit the casino and relax on the beach.

QUOTE]


The reason why AC will be limited in their residential growth off the boardwalk is if you are non-gambler and want to relax on the beach, the last place you would go is AC. The last place.

To you point about people who buy homes there and then gamble. I've had focus groups on this. Gamblers don't want to buy a place in Atlantic City because they are already given a place in Atlantic City (comped rooms!) for free. With maid service, free breakfast free parking etc. It's a tough sell to have them pay for something in AC. Rated players are treated very well and with the competition from nearby states casinos are spending a lot more on their players. ..a lot more. It doesn't take much to get free rooms.

For those players who don't stay at the casinos, they want to buy in other shore towns away from the hustle and bustle or places they've been familiar with for generations such as Wildwood, Ocean City etc. Those are the answers I got over and over and we had to shift our marketing strategy accordingly, but overall successfully.