A 250-unit apartment project, backed by developer Wasseem
Boraie and former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, is seeking a $30 million loan from
the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, according to a Press of Atlantic
City report.
The $61 million development, called The Beach at South
Inlet, would go up in an empty site in the South Inlet.
In March 2014,
the CRDA’s board agreed to loan up to $30 million to the project. Then three
casinos — two bordering the South Inlet — closed. Stockton University’s plan to
open its Island Campus near the neighborhood collapsed. And legislation was
proposed (and is pending) to divert the CRDA’s lifeblood — the 1.25 percent
Investment Alternative Tax on casino revenue — away from the agency to repay
Atlantic City’s debt. That all prompted board members to reconsider the offer.
The CRDA must first vote if the project is "feasible
and reasonable to fund in light of the changed economic conditions,"
before approving the loan proposal, which expires Sept. 30, according to the
Press of AC.
Despite the economic challenges Atlantic City poses, Bart
Blatstein, the well-known Philadelphia developer, has reportedly taken steps to
purchase the Showboat Casino from Stockton University– an acquisition the
college would welcome after becoming stuck in ownership limbo for the past nine
months.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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