Revitalization of Atlantic City has begun

Already a major tourist attraction, Atlantic City quickly shot to the upper echelon of gambling when they legalized gambling in 1976. Millions of people flocked to Atlantic City casinos every year to place bets and enjoy the sights and sounds of the boardwalk area. During the 80’s, Atlantic City was actually considered a serious rival to the world’s biggest gambling destination in Las Vegas.

However, Las Vegas quickly regained its foothold as America’s premier gambling destination during the mid-90‘s, and Atlantic City began a slow decline. This decline increased rapidly during the late 2000’s when the US was hit with a recession. But despite the ongoing recession, Atlantic City is determined to climb back to the top, and they’re taking several steps to make this happen. With that being said, here is a look at the revitalization effort that’s currently happening around the city.

The aforementioned recession caused many casino brands to either cancel or halt their plans to build new venues in Atlantic City. Fortunately, this hasn’t provided the death blow that people have feared since some casino projects have resumed following the recession. The most notable project that’s been resumed is Revel Casino on the boardwalk.

Many people wrote this casino off after it was riddled with several major problems including a lack of funds, three executives dying in plane crash and Atlantic City residents being angered over a proposed $300 million Revel tax break. After key investors pulled out of the project and 400 workers were laid off, Revel Casino looked dead in the water. However, Revel execs never gave up on finding investors for the project, and construction is underway once again.

In addition to the resumption of Revel Casino, smaller casinos could begin construction assuming New Jersey Governor Chris Christie approves smaller establishments as expected. Currently, only hotel & casinos that offer 500 hotel rooms or more are approved; however, several companies such as Hard Rock International are willing to build casinos with less than 500 hotel rooms. And this is exactly what Atlantic City needs during their revitalization. Of course, there are more pieces that need to fall into place as well.

Atlantic City already has a nice shopping district. But with the city trying to reinvent itself, it's doing everything bigger and better. This being the case, the shopping district will experience a 45,000-square-foot addition, which includes a new parking garage to accommodate more shoppers and casino players.

Besides the shopping district addition, New Jersey is working on instating a tourism district in Atlantic City. The tourism district will work towards cleaning up the city and ensuring that everything is safe for visitors. As of now, Atlantic City has a lot of vacant, old buildings that need to be razed, and the tourism district would be assigned to this task. If both the city and shopping district are improved, Atlantic City and its casinos could draw more repeat visitors in the future.

One of the biggest things holding Atlantic City back in the past was the fact that not everybody was on the same page. The state government, city government and casinos have all had conflicting views on how things should be done. But now, it seems as if all three parties know what’s on the line, and it’s now or never for the United States’ second largest gambling destination.

Both the city and state governments seem to be making decisions that will help draw more tourists to the area as well as keep the city safe. And casinos are more willing than ever to work with the government to ensure that they’re doing more than just making profits.

Hopefully all of the parties continue to work together in an effort to restore Atlantic City to its glory casino days.