Bart Blatstein has managed to open the Showboat Hotel at the height of the summer season, a great development for a city that needs good news. His Tower Investments Inc.’s quick and rather quiet opening – underpromising and overdelivering – was just right.
Glenn Straub wanted to get the former Revel open even earlier, but it’s taking longer and may not happen by Labor Day.
That’s probably due to a combination of the greater challenges at the state’s biggest resort building and Straub’s more limited experience with urban redevelopment.
We hope it’s not, as many critics of Atlantic City have suggested, because officials are giving the eccentric Straub a hard time or even bear a personal animosity toward him. More likely it just takes longer to prep a property with 17,000 smoke and fire detectors alone, and with plans to offer a zipline, a Skytrail ropes course and a 13-story bicycle endurance course.
The city has collapsed financially and the county is in a localized depression, so the nearly singular priority of public officials and every other stakeholder in the regional economy must be to do everything and anything to promote business and economic activity.
Christopher Paladino, president of the Atlantic City Development Corp., spelled it out this month to this newspaper’s editorial board. He said the city needs a lot of incremental improvements. The contribution of AC Devco’s Gateway Project will depend on many people and businesses moving into the neighborhoods surrounding the college campus and utility offices.
Robert Mulcahy III, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority’s board chairman, and John Palmieri, its director, previously made clear their understanding that this is how the redevelopment of Atlantic City must proceed, with government efforts triggering residential and commercial improvements. We hope city officials understand as well.
State-backed projects can pull together massive funding – for example, reserving $28 million for another Camden project last week – and get major players to work together, but they’re just spark plugs to fire up the private sector.
We hope Straub gets at least part of Revel open soon and builds upon that.
We know Blatstein will add to the services and appeal of his latest property as soon as he can.
City and state officials should do what they can to encourage such private business development, and everyone in the region should celebrate it. It’s the path to a better future for all.