By the fall, one of Atlantic City’s closed casinos—the former Showboat casino—should be an active college campus serving 1,500 students as well as being the site of a privately run hotel.
The former casino has been bought by the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey located in nearby Galloway Township.
Stockton President Herman J. Saatkamp told a recent meeting of New Jersey’s the 1st Legislative District Economic Development Task Force that collaborations among government, business and education are crucial to any revitalization plan.
“There is no one thing we can do, there are hundreds of things,” he said. “But it can take years to see the fruits of our labor.”
The college is already converting Showboat into a hotel and Island Campus that will begin accepting students in the fall. Saatkamp said about 400 students would live at the site and 1,200 to 1,500 students would be taking courses. The hotel would be run by a private operator, he said.
Saatkamp said that within about three years, the college will offer full degree programs on the Island Campus, and he expects to see more development around the site, including a “Center within a Center” that could house some of Stockton’s research centers.
Meanwhile, another southern New Jersey College, Rowan University in Camden County, announced it is looking to locate a branch of its School of Osteopathic Medicine in the Atlantic City area.
Rowan President Ali Houshmand said he has been talking with representatives from local healthcare provider AtlantiCare and Stockton about the plan to locate a branch campus in the area serving about 50 students.
The university has received a $3 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore expanding their program, and he would like to have a branch campus in the Atlantic City area, Houshmand said.
Though the school might not be located in Atlantic City—the plan is still in the conceptual stage—officials said any such development would help the troubled area.
More than 8,000 casino workers in Atlantic City lost their jobs last year after four casinos closed in the resort. The massive job loss has affected all of the region’s economy.
