Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who owns the shuttered Trump Plaza casino resort in Atlantic City, proposed the use of tax funds casinos annually pay to the city for the pending demolition of the aforementioned property.
Under state law, Atlantic City-based casinos pay 1.25% of their full-year revenues to the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority in the form of an Investment Alternative Tax. The annual contributions are typically used for non-gaming-related expansion and renovation projects. Members of the development authority will discuss Mr. Icahn’s proposal at a scheduled Tuesday meeting.
Trump Plaza was one of the emblematic hotel and casino properties on Atlantic City’s Boardwalk. The resort opened doors in 1984. It was owned by US President Donald Trump, who was one of the big names in the nation’s gambling industry back then. The casino was shuttered in the fall of 2014. It was actually one of four Boardwalk casinos to close doors back in 2014 as a result from the continuous downfall of the city’s gambling industry and overall economy.
Trump Plaza Awaits Demolition
Last month, Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian announced that Trump Plaza will be demolished sometime next year. More details about the process emerged later on and it became clear that the demolition will take place next spring.
It was decided that the former hotel and casino resort will be imploded. Mayor Guardian explained that a nearby parking garage with over 2,600 parking spaces as well as the Holiday Inn tower will be kept.
The demolition will vacate several acres of oceanfront land, which is expected to draw the attention of major investors at a time when Atlantic City is showing signs of revitalization. Liquidators have been preparing the Trump Plaza property for its planned demolition by selling off the complex’s furniture and other contents over the past several weeks.
Trump Taj Mahal, another shuttered property formerly owned by President Trump and later by Carl Icahn, was purchased by Florida hotel and casino developer Hard Rock International this spring. The complex is currently undergoing a $500-million renovation and is planned to be reopened as a Hard Rock-branded resort next summer.
The redevelopment process will see Trump Taj Mahal stripped of its iconic minarets. Those will be replaced by rock’n’roll elements to match the theme the Hard Rock brand and its properties are well recognized for.
Trump Taj Mahal closed doors last October. The property was on the verge of bankruptcy for over two years before being shuttered eventually. Mr. Icahn bought the struggling casino resort out of bankruptcy in the spring of 2015. The billionaire investor previously planned to invest up to $200 million in hopes to revitalize the property. However, the overall economic situation in Atlantic City as well as the property’s own problems hampered its revival and the businessman deemed it necessary to shutter it.
He also partially blamed a more than a month-long workers’ strike at the resort for its eventual closure.
