The third deal to sell the former Atlantic Club casino in Atlantic City stumbled and fell once again. The latest attempt to sell the shuttered venue, which involved a takeover offer made by the Stockton University and turn it into part of its new Atlantic City campus, also turned out unsuccessful.
What Stockton University wanted was the land along with the parking garage. Should it have managed to acquire the place, the hotel and casino buildings would have been fully demolished.
Yesterday, the deal was announced as unsuccessful by TJM Properties. The President of TJM, Terence McCarthy, shared that in his opinion, Stockton University could bring great economic development to Atlantic City but revealed that the proposed deal would not move forward.
Despite the fact that Stockton University revealed in August that it agreed to purchase the complex and shared at the time that the price of the deal would be unveiled at the completion of the deal, the amount of the acquisition bid was never made public.
Harvey Kesselman, who is President of Stockton University, confirmed that a meeting with the university’s board was held on Wednesday night. He further confirmed that the negotiations failed to see the deal completed but explained that Stockton remains committed to Atlantic City and its future expansion there.
Negotiations Fall Apart after Sale’s Preliminary Approval
In August, the Stockton University Board of Trustees unanimously gave the green light to the plan to purchase the former Atlantic Club property from TJM Properties.
At the time, the terms of the proposed acquisition included the demolition of the hotel and casino building, with Stockton keeping the 1,100-space parking garage and planning to build an academic and residential campus. The University was given the opportunity to withdraw from the agreement due to a 60-day due diligence period to evacuate the property.
Now, the reasons for the failed deal were not unveiled because of a confidentiality agreement inked between TJM Properties and Stockton. As announced by TJM, the property will be offered for sale once again.
The former Atlantic Club has been left unoccupied since 2014.
Five months later, in May 2014, the property was purchased by TJM from an affiliate of the casino behemoth Caesars Entertainment Corp. – the Colony Capital LLC hedge fund – at the price of US$13.5 million. Over the years, there have been multiple rumors regarding the acquisition of the Atlantic Club but none of them were actually turned into action.
The Mayor of Atlantic City, Don Guardian, have previously revealed that he had spoken with a couple of developers interested in a possible takeover of the abandoned property but the negotiations have been unsuccessful for the time being.
