Atlantic City’s Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino is proving to be as resilient as the current President’s ambitions to build a border wall. The venue was forced to shut its doors in 2014 as the Garden State’s gambling epicenter took a hit from weaker traffic. Six years on, the property still stands, but not completely intact. Bits and pieces of the façade continue to fall off and peel away, and Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small is apparently tired of the building being seen as nothing more than illegally discarded trash. He is, once again, calling for the property to be demolished.
Billionaire Carl Icahn, through his Icahn Enterprises company, owns the property after he purchased it following the closure. He has said in the past that he’s willing to make the building disappear, but only if the city covers almost half of the cost of the demolition. With the state controlling the city’s purse strings, and not much money available, that idea has not been met with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Mayor Small wants to clean up his back yard and get rid of the dead weight. He said last Thursday that the building is a “blight on our skyline,” adding that it is the “biggest eyesore in town.” He proclaimed that the goal of his administration is to make the building go away, but he didn’t specify who would bear the expense.
His comments came during a meeting of the Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association, which was held at Caesars Atlantic City on January 16. It was the first “unofficial” State of the City address for the mayor and, in order to help see his goal conceived, he explained that a new 90-day code enforcement review panel is going to be put in place starting this week, according to The Press Of Atlantic City. Also coming are a business advisory council and infrastructure committee that are designed to help identify opportunities in both of those potential growth areas.
Mayor Small’s comments came just after the CEO of Hard Rock International (HRI), Jim Allen, expressed his disappointment for the state of the city. HRI owns another former Trump building, the Trump Taj Mahal, which it converted into the Hard Rock Atlantic City. However, Allen feels that the city has not responded appropriately to maintenance issues and that it has been remiss in its duties in keeping the Garden State’s gambling garden in pristine condition. He asserted that the city is in “worse shape” than it was three years ago.
