ATLANTIC CITY-Even as the new Revel hotel and casino prepares to open next week as the keystone to Gov. Chris Christie’s plan for revitalizing Atlantic City and stemming loss of revenues to newer casinos in New York and Pennsylvania, a challenge has come from another direction: The Meadowlands.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, a Democrat from Essex County, announced Tuesday that the Assembly will hold public hearings about bringing casino-style gambling to The Meadowlands. The area is currently home to a half-built, long-stymied project that was supposed to bring its revitalization: the huge retail/entertainment center, “Xanadu.”
Xanadu has new developers – Triple Five, the operators of Minnesota’s Mall of America – who will officially rename it American Dream Meadowlands, as soon as a pending development tax break deal with the state is approved.
Both the Revel project and Xanadu were handpicked by Christie committees to be considered for tax-break assistance after long lulls in their construction. The $2.4 billion Revel resort was granted $261 million in tax-increment financing, equivalent to 20 percent of construction costs for its second phase. The $3.7 billion American Dream will cost an estimated $1.7 billion to finish. The state Economic Development Authority is currently considering up to $350 million in tax breaks for Triple Five.
The Meadowlands project has been reviled by many legislators as a white elephant, however, and some have been openly skeptical of plans to revive it.
Oliver says in a statement, "We need to at least discuss the idea of bringing casino-style gambling to the Meadowlands. These are benefits worth exploring further."
She was backed up by two other members of the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee, Ruben J. Ramos, Jr., the chairman, and Ralph R. Caputo, who said Assembly hearings will be held before the end of the year.
But State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, also a Democrat, has nixed the idea of Senate hearings. He has said that Atlantic City needs at least a five-year period before in-state competition is unleashed to see if it can be turned around.
An earlier proposal to debate casinos in Bergen County was put on hold in January.
Christie said on a pre-opening tour of Revel this week that he is unconcerned about fears that Revel itself might provide too much competition for Atlantic City’s 11 other casinos and force one or more of them out of business. “The only way to grow and attract new business is to offer spectacular new alternatives like this,” Christie said.
The 47-story Revel which has 1,898 rooms opens as the largest property of its kind in Atlantic City. It has created 5,000 new permanent jobs, according to state economic development authorities, along with 2,600 construction jobs.
The new casino will have a $153 million annual payroll, and generate a combined total of $155 million in state and local taxes each year.
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