ATLANTIC CITY - In an event seen as symbolic of Atlantic
City's future, city and state officials, as well as the head of gambling giant
Caesars Entertainment Inc., signed the final steel beam Wednesday to top
Harrah's new $126 million conference center.
Caesars Entertainment chief executive officer Gary
Loveman said the project, due for completion in August, reflected his company's
continuing commitment to Atlantic City, even as four casinos - including
Caesars' own Showboat - have closed, and a fifth teeters on the brink.
"This is really a test case for me and my
competitors - that Atlantic City can have a multifaceted meetings and
conventions business," Loveman said. "That we can offer an entire
experience, a deeper hospitality experience."
City and state officials hope Atlantic City can remake
itself as a convention destination and beach resort, but the latest
Rutgers-Eagleton poll finds that New Jersey residents are not optimistic about
the city's future.
Loveman, who flew from Las Vegas for the event, said that
while a lot of work lies ahead to diversify Atlantic City's now-truncated
gaming economy, Harrah's new Waterfront Conference Center - which the company
says is the largest and most technologically advanced on the East Coast - helps
lay a foundation for something better.
The Northeast Corridor hosts a $16 billion meetings and
conventions business, he said, but Atlantic City captures only 1 percent of
that.
"There's no reason with Atlantic City's proximity to
New York City, Washington, D.C., Philly, and Baltimore that we're only getting
1 percent," he said. "We can offer [conventioneers] a
state-of-the-art facility that's fun and inexpensive."
Loveman said the new center could accommodate up to 5,000
delegates at a time.
Loveman, a former Harvard Business School professor, was
joined by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), Atlantic City
Mayor Don Guardian, and John Palmieri, executive director of the Casino
Reinvestment Development Authority.
"This is a great day for Atlantic City,"
Sweeney said. "Atlantic City has a phenomenal future. We've taken some
hits, and we know that. . . . But Atlantic City hasn't seen its best days yet.
Atlantic City's best days will be as a resort again."
A new poll out Wednesday offered a different interpretation.
With shrinking profits, casino closings, and about 8,000
layoffs this year, nearly two-thirds of New Jerseyans say Atlantic City's best
days are behind it, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Just 22
percent say the resort's best days are yet to come, and 15 percent are unsure.
Sixty-three percent of New Jerseyans say gambling has
benefited only the casino-hotels, while 25 percent say it has been good for
residents and the casinos.
Four Atlantic City casinos - Atlantic Club, Showboat,
Revel, and Trump Plaza - have shuttered this year, and the market contraction
may not be over.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which owns the Trump
Taj Mahal, said Wednesday that the casino would stay open at least through
November. The company had threatened to close the casino Nov. 13 if billionaire
investor Carl Icahn, who owns the casino's $286 million first lien debt, did
not get major concessions from the casino workers' union and substantial state
and city financial aid.
A bankruptcy judge ruled in Icahn's favor last Friday to
nullify the current Taj union contract, stripping workers of company-paid
health-care and pension plans. That same day he revised the amount that he
sought in state aid to $175 million, mostly from economic grants. Icahn said he
would also pump $100 million of his money into the casino.
Source: Philly.com
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