Stockton University’s long nightmare with the former Showboat casino in Atlantic City is officially over.
The school announced it had completed a $23 million sale of the former casino to Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein. The new owner, however, says he has not decided what he plans to do with the property.
The school initially bought the property from Caesars Entertainment for $18 million in December 2014 with hopes of turning it into an Atlantic City campus. The school is located in nearby Galloway Township.
But competing covenants on the property soon threw the plan into turmoil. Caesars sold the property with a deed restriction that the property could not be used to operate a casino. However, a covenant signed in the 80s with the Showboat’s neighboring casinos on the city’s Boardwalk held that the property could only be used as a casino.
Trump Entertainment invoked the covenant and objected to having student housing so close to its Trump Taj Mahal casino.
The contradiction essentially blocked the school’s plan and left it paying hundreds or thousands a month to maintain the vacant casino tower.
After a previous attempt to sell the casino to Florida developer Glen Straub—who owns the also vacant Revel casino—fell through, Blatstein stepped in to buy the property. Blatstein is the developer of a recent transformation of Atlantic City’s Pier Shops into The Playground entertainment complex.
The Straub deal fell through due to the competing covenants, and it’s still unclear how Blatstein plans to get around them. A bill pending in the state Legislature would remove the deed restrictions from the Showboat and any other publicly owned facility located within Atlantic City’s tourism district.
Caesars, however, has threatened to challenge the law if it is passed.
Blatstein told the Associated Press that he is considering opening a casino at the site, but added that non-gambling options including office space and entertainment uses would also work well at the building.
“It’s great to be part of the new Atlantic City,” he said. “It’s a great, storied property.”
For Stockton, the purchase of the building led to a major controversy over how quickly the deal was made and the money spent, as well as whether the school reported the sale properly to the state. The University’s president at the time Herman Saatkamp then resigned citing health concerns.
“This is an incredible day for the university,” the university’s current president Harvey Kesselman told the Press of Atlantic City. “The money is in our account. Stockton is closing this chapter in our history, and moving on to exciting plans for the university’s future. Tonight will be the first time in a long time that I will get a full night’s sleep.”
The school also thanked Blatstein.
“The university is fortunate to have worked with someone with a strong record of successful development and a commitment to Atlantic City, which is important to Stockton,” Kesselman said in a press release. “It has been a pleasure to work with Bart Blatstein on this successful sale. Stockton will collaborate with Mr. Blatstein in ways that will contribute to the renaissance of Atlantic City.”
The sale had originally been scheduled for November, but Blatstein asked for a delay—picking up maintenance costs in the interim—to complete the sale in 2016 for tax purposes.
Meanwhile, the university has pursued an alternate plan for a satellite campus in the resort and is planning 56,000 square foot project on the site of the former Atlantic City High School.
