Terry Glebocki had been a finance executive in the casino industry for more than 30 years when, in December, she was elevated from chief financial officer to chief executive officer of Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort.
With the storm that was soon to come, there arguably was not a better time for that financial expertise to come into play.
Within a few months of becoming CEO, Glebocki, like her counterparts across the industry, was faced with the life-and-death challenge of sustaining her property through unprecedented months of idleness, thanks to the Covid-19 shutdown.
Last week, GGB News interviewed Glebocki as the property completed preparation for this week’s long-awaited reopening. As workers returned for retraining in the “new normal,” Glebocki lauded her team for the efforts that brought them to the point of a safe reopening—not to mention the property’s long-term survival.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy ordered casinos and other non-essential businesses to close on March 16. At the time, Glebocki was already working on the financials needed to sustain liquidity and ultimately preserve, for the long term, some 3,000 jobs.
“One of the things we had to do—and we did it as a team—was to ask, what expenses can we turn off right away?” Glebocki said. Fees under long-term contracts, such as participation fees on leased slot machines, were among the first. “Slot manufacturers were fabulous in understanding that these machines aren’t being played, so we don’t need to pay for them,” said Glebocki.
The operator also had to negotiate new terms with lenders, since, with 3,000 employees, Ocean didn’t qualify for federal PPP loans or the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending program.
“Our lenders were very helpful, and our vendors were very helpful,” Glebocki said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep our employees on payroll for too long a period. We paid them for two weeks, and we continued to cover their benefits through the end of April. But we did let go over 90 percent of our workforce, and we have been very selective and thoughtful in who we bring back when, to try to maintain that liquidity.”
Glebocki estimates that close to 2,000 of those 3,000 Ocean team members will be back to work by Thursday, July 2, after Murphy issued a long-awaited approval to reopen with restricted conditions, at 25 percent capacity.
“We’re doing training, so we’ve brought a lot of people back already,” she said. “Not knowing who was coming back, and when, has been one of the most challenging parts of this restart.”
Safe Return
Ocean team members have had to train on all the safety measures put in, which in many cases are more restrictive than in neighboring states like Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. (For instance, those states opened at 50 percent capacity, not 25 percent.) In fact, at press time, casinos were still awaiting official, final safety guidelines from the state. According to Glebocki, Ocean’s requirements are designed to meet any of the state’s requirements at opening.
Those requirements include requiring everyone in the building—customers and employees—to wear a mask. Employees will go through a temperature sensor when entering the property, and the property is ready to go should the state decide patrons need to be screened for temperature. Every other slot machine is disabled to effect social distancing between players. There are Plexiglas barriers at the front desk, cage and other locations where contact with staff is required but social distancing is difficult.
Games and equipment will be cleaned and sanitized at least once every four hours. At the tables, cards will be change out at least every four hours, and dice will be cleaned between shooters.
The property has doubled its “Ocean Clean Team” staff on the casino floor to sanitize machines between uses, and has placed more than 200 fixed hand-sanitizer stations across the casino floor. “Also, in every encounter you have with someone in a fixed location, there will be a pump hand sanitizer available there as well,” Glebocki said.
The property also purchased electrostatic sprayers and misters to aid in cleansing the air, and since Ocean is the newest ground-up building on the AC Boardwalk, it already had a superior air filtration system. “We recently changed out over 1,500 air filters across the property, including air filters in every guest room,” said Glebocki. “We have 100 percent fresh air. We’ve been working with our mechanical engineers to understand the air quality here, and they say it’s better than most hospitals, and it’s far superior to what you’re experiencing in the big-box stores.”
Glebocki says that while New Jersey’s safety requirements are strict, the safety of employees and guests is paramount, the restrictions are not permanent, and Atlantic City operators are simply happy to get the nod to reopen, which happened weeks after operators in many jurisdictions.
“I am just thrilled that we have an (opening) date,” she said. “That was the important thing. We needed a date. We have protocols that I believe the state is going to find very acceptable, and I think our guest are going to be happy with those protocols.
“New Jersey had a tough time through this, and we realize that. It was a difficult decision for the governor to make. But I think as the numbers continue to improve, they’ll probably open us up a little bit more.”
Happy Returns
As Glebocki notes, Atlantic City operators are happy the governor kept his pledge to open by the Fourth of July weekend. While opening on Atlantic City’s busiest weekend of the year at 25 percent capacity is certainly a challenge, Glebocki says Ocean is taking measures to create a pleasant experience, even for overflow crowds outside. For instance, there will be food trucks lining the casino’s porte cochere on the holiday weekend.
Inside the resort, there will be plenty to do. Glebocki notes that the sheer size of the Ocean property will make for a positive guest experience, social distancing and all. “We’re very fortunate here at Ocean,” she said. “It’s a huge building. We have over 6.4 million square feet. There are plenty of places to go. The building was built for social distancing, so space is not our enemy here; it’s our friend.”
While indoor dining had been planned, Murphy canceled that possibility this week, due to crowds that packed New Jersey beach bars last weekend, mostly without masks. However, takeout will be available from 12 of the property’s restaurants. “And because we have so much opening through a lot of our open areas,” said Glebocki, who adds that there also are 15 picnic tables on the outdoor mezzanine Sky Garden, which offers fire pits and views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Elsewhere, there will be plenty of non-gaming amenities. The spa will be open. There will be outdoor pools plus the Eclipse Pool, which is an indoor-outdoor pool. “We have over 100 day beds and cabanas that are available,” said Glebocki. “We’re working on making sure people have a private, relaxing experience when they are here.”
Marketing Magic
The promotional wheels are already turning under Mike Donovan, senior vice president of marketing. In fact, they began turning before a reopening date was even known. The casino contacted members of its idle database and asked for stories of special occasions they would have held at Ocean that they missed because of the pandemic. The top 100 stories would get a free room on reopening night, July 2.
“We were watching on social media, and we were hearing so many of our guests saying how disappointed they were that they weren’t able to come and celebrate their special occasions,” explained Glebocki. “It would be someone’s 21st birthday, or anniversary—big milestone events that got put on hold. The thought was to do an outreach and talk to these people, and we were overwhelmed with the response.
“Over 2,500 people wrote to us about their special occasions they missed. So we will be recognizing 100 of them, inviting them in as my guests.”
Other events will be added developments in the Covid-19 pandemic allow. Entertainment, though, will have to wait out the pandemic before returning full-force. “It’s difficult to say when it would be safe for indoor large gatherings to begin, and we’ve rescheduled a lot of acts in Ovation Hall to 2021 at this point,” Glebocki said. “But we’re looking at new, smaller music venues that could provide great live entertainment to our guests.”
She also says she welcomes more development on the northeast end of Atlantic City’s Boardwalk, where the Ocean, Hard Rock and Resorts properties possibly could be joined by an ambitious indoor water park developer Bart Blatstein has announced for the Showboat property.
“I’m excited about the energy,” Glebocki said. “This section of town is called North Beach. I think any new amenities that are added to this North Beach section are fabulous. We encourage all of it, and I think we all work well together.”
As far as the longer-term picture in Atlantic City, Glebocki and other operators hope to recapture the hot streak they were on before the industry shut down. “Again, these are unique times, and no one really knows, but I’m optimistic,” she said. “Before we shut down, we had tremendous momentum here. We’d had double-digit growth eight months in a row.
“And Atlantic City is resilient. We’ve had challenging times before; we adapt and meet the challenges of not only today, but tomorrow.”
