Gov. Chris Christie in a visit to Atlantic City's Revel casino before it opened.
Atlantic City advocates insist the closing of Revel, the 6.3-million-square-foot resort and casino, is only a detour on the city’s road to economic recovery.
The scheduled September shutdown will mean a loss of 3,200 jobs, according to June casino employment figures, but Mayor Don Guardian says he envisions a future use for the structure’s 47 floors.
“This might be Revel’s last chapter, but not the last one for this building,’’ said Guardian, who said there was interest from several parties in the property without bids being placed to meet requirement of a bankruptcy sale held last week.
“While I am not privy to the current facts that led to this decision, I do know this process is a complex one compounded by an extremely short time frame and cash flow challenges,’’ Guardian said.
Guardian said his administration “remains committed to the workers, the businesses, and the visitors who are impacted by today’s news.”
There was no response to a request comment for comment from the administration of Gov. Chris Christie. Christie was in Maine Tuesday on a campaign trip.
Christie has long maintained that Atlantic City’s gambling industry has needed time to recover from an economic slump without intrastate competition but in comments last December Christie called 2014 “obviously a critical year because we need to begin to see progress in Atlantic City or we're going to start considering alternatives.’’
Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, said it’s still too early to change strategy.
“Atlantic City is in a transition period. We know it won't happen overnight, but we will get there. It look Las Vegas over ten years to transition to a destination resort and now they're beating the odds. Atlantic City has so much potential, and we'll strive to maximize it,’’ Mazzeo said.
