ATLANTIC CITY - Layoff notices were issued to Trump Plaza
employees around 11:30 a.m. Monday that the casino will be closing in
mid-September - making it the fourth casino to close or either threaten to
close in this resort by fall.
About 1,600 workers will be affected by this latest
shutdown.
Trump Plaza issued a statement stating: "WARN notices
were sent to the employees of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino today to advise them
that the management and Board of Directors of Trump Plaza Associates, LLC and
its parent company, Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., have been reviewing
alternatives to the property. Although this review has not been completed and
no final decision has been made, the company expects that it will terminate the
operations of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino on or shortly after Sept. 16, 2014.
Trump Plaza, which opened in 1984, is one of the oldest and
smallest casinos here, similar to the Atlantic Club that closed in mid-January
of this year.
Over the past month, $2.4 billion Revel declared bankruptcy
for the second time in just over a year and Caesars Entertainment Inc., which
owns Showboat, announced on June 19 that it planned to close the Mardi Gras-
themed casino by summer's end.
The four casinos combined represent nearly a third of
Atlantic City's current workforce. The pending closures were described by
casino union chief Bob McDevitt of Unite Here Local 54 on Saturday as an
"impending catastrophe" not just for Atlantic City but the state as a
whole.
Gaming analysts have said Atlantic City is a market with too
many casinos and not enough demand and it had to reduce gaming supply to
stabilize.
The resort has lost nearly half of its gaming revenue since
2007 to surrounding states that have opened their own casinos, including
Pennsylvania, New York, and more recently Maryland. Harrah's Horseshoe Casino
in Baltimore, which is owned by Caesars Ent., opens late next month.
On Friday, local and state politicians in Atlantic County
were briefed by Trump Plaza attorneys that they planned to issue layoff notices
Monday to the employees to meet the 60-day deadline for the casino to close in
mid-September.
Dorothy "Dot" Long, 60, a 30-year employee who
works as a cashier for Trump Plaza's restaurants, expressed only sadness.
"I never thought this would happen," she said
Monday. "But casinos are everywhere now. I don't see how anything can turn
around for Atlantic City. We're devastated."
Commuters and visitors coming from the Atlantic City
Expressway are first greeted by Caesars casino and Trump Plaza when they first
enter the city. They are the first properties people see as they drive into the
resort.
"At the end of the Expressway you see the big bright
letters - TRUMP PLAZA," said Richard Goldfarb, 52, a telecom manager and
an AC regular from Holland, Bucks County, in an email on Saturday after news of
the casino's closing spread . "It makes the whole area look lively.
"Now what happens when you come in and the first thing
you see is a big empty building."
The closure of Trump Plaza leaves just one Trump-brand
casino in Atlantic City - the Trump Taj Mahal. The former Trump Marina was sold
and became the Atlantic City Golden Nugget Casino Hotel under new owner
Landry's Inc. of Houston about three years ago.
Donald Trump's involvement and shares in Trump Entertainment
Resorts Inc. were diminished to less than 10 percent in the company's last
bankruptcy in 2009 while the casinos had agreed to still use the Trump name in
a licensing agreement.
Source: Philly.com
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