Good Bye Atlantic City: Jul 13 at 10:38 PM By WALLACE McKELVEY, Staff Writer The Press of Atlantic City Follow Wallace McKelvey on Twitter One in four people employed by Atlantic City’s faltering casino industry could lose their jobs by this fall as the owners of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino confirmed Saturday that it could join three other properties in closing if a buyer is not found. Experts say the impact of losing an estimated 7,800 jobs since the January closing of the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel would ripple across the region and hurt the resort’s marketing efforts in an already stagnant economy. “Can you imagine trying to sell the Boardwalk as a destination when every third or fourth 70- or 80-story high-rise is vacant?” asked Deborah Figart, a Richard Stockton College economics professor who has extensively researched the local casino industry. “I’m so afraid of blight returning to Atlantic City.” Trump Entertainment Resorts told The Associated Press that while a final decision about Trump Plaza hasn’t been made, it expects the casino to close Sept. 16. Notices warning more than 1,000 employees will go out Monday. The casino, which opened in 1984 under the tutelage of its namesake, Donald Trump, joins Revel Casino-Hotel and Showboat Casino Hotel in announcing closings at the end of the summer tourist season. The latter two properties employ about 3,100 and 2,100 people, respectively. Atlantic Club’s closing, meanwhile, left about 1,600 without work. “It’s a disaster,” said state Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, who first reported Trump Plaza’s rumored closing Friday. “This is going to impact all sectors of the economy, from big stores to real estate values and on and on.” Labor officials have called upon state officials to do something to head off the “pending catastrophe” as the workers they represent reeled from the latest blow to their livelihoods. “We are going to do whatever it takes to stand with these workers and fight for the future of south Jersey,” Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, said in a written statement Saturday. Analysts say the closings could relieve pressure on Atlantic City’s other eight casinos amid increasing competition from newer casinos in neighboring states. But even that glimmer of hope remains uncertain, as some factions of the state Legislature have lobbied for a casino in North Jersey. “I don’t see how that does anything but hurt Atlantic City,” U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, said Saturday. “No one’s explained to me how Atlantic City is protected if the state Legislature moves forward with that.”
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 10:46:28 +0000
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