Pier Shops tenants blast Caesars

More from Bart Blatstein's Atlantic City adventure: On Tuesday, some tenants of the beleaguered Pier Shops came forward to blast Caesars for challenging whether the Philadelphia businessman has the right to redevelop the half-empty former luxury mall that juts out over the ocean.

Blatstein, considered the mastermind behind the revival of Northern Liberties, paid $2.7 million in November to assume the mall's leases and has big plans for the place, but Caesars Atlantic City is withholding its approval. Caesars is owed more than $1 million in back rents as owner of the land itself, if not the structure on top of it, which cost $200 million to build.

"The place is beautiful and has so much potential," said Jaimie Hannigan, owner of White Lotus, a clothing store. She was also a past marketing director with the Lyons Group, which opened the Pier in 2006. She said Caesars is "not now truly interested in seeing the Pier Shops prosper."

She noted that Caesars (along with Tropicana) paid to acquire and then close the Atlantic Club and also shut down the then-profitable Showboat, placing deed restrictions that forbid casino gaming. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they would want to close or hinder the prosperity of the Pier Shops," she said.

Russell Lichtenstein, the lawyer representing Caesars and its president, Kevin Ortzman, declined to comment Tuesday. Caesars has called Blatstein's activities on the pier "rogue" and "illegal," and filed a complaint asking that he be ejected from the property. Blatstein has responded that Caesars never objected to his involvement until he showed them blueprints and scheduled a news conference, since canceled.

Hannigan said Caesars had never cooperated in any plans to help the Pier since its decline in 2008. The Pier connects directly to Caesars by an enclosed pedestrian walkway over the Boardwalk. She said that Caesars appears to view it as competition and that its customers were "actually penalized for using their [casino comp] points at the Pier Shops."

"The burning question is, what are Caesars' true intentions here? We can clearly see Bart Blatstein's positive intentions, investing millions and risking a tremendous amount of time and money on a mall that is almost dead," Hannigan said.

Two other tenants also released statements Tuesday critical of Caesars, though one later requested not to be named.

Epidermis Beauty Bar said, "They have continually given us false hope by [disapproving] potential buyers, while excluding us from almost every promotion and marketing effort."

Hannigan said business continues to be "great" but that people are discouraged by the vacant stores. Many never get past the Apple Store. "Why not let somebody come in and bring this place back to life?" she asked.

Another court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

As for Blatstein, he drove to Atlantic City to look in on the property he insists is his to redevelop. He said he had lunch and bought a Peppermint Patty at It's Sugar. "I went to the pier to reassure the tenants that I'm there and I'm working for the cause," he said later Tuesday. "I'm not going away."

Source: Philly.com