New Jersey’s Stockton University will get a satellite campus in Atlantic City under a new plan to build a major complex in the resort’s Chelsea neighborhood.
The school had purchased the closed Showboat casino for a second campus, but that planned bogged down and the school is now selling the property to Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein.
The new campus will be part of a complex that also a new South Jersey Gas headquarters and an 886-space parking garage. The complex could be open in late 2018, officials told the Press of Atlantic City.
The $121 million campus could serve 1,800 students and will include classrooms and a 500-student oceanfront dormitory, the press reported.
The plan is being proposed by AC Devco, a nonprofit group that wants to use a $210 million mix of public and private money to redevelop land at the foot of Albany Avenue, one of the main entrances into the resort.
Stockton interim President Harvey Kesselman said in a statement that the university is working closing with AC Devco, Atlantic County, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and Atlantic City to expand the university’s presence in the city, the Press reported.
“We believe this to be in the best interests of our students and the region in creating educational options and opportunities,” Kesselman told the paper. “Right now we are still in the process of lining up the financial partners to make this project a reality, and hope to finalize this in the near future.”
Stockton bought the Showboat site for $18 million in December 2014, but soon found that the property had competing deed restrictions that said the site could not be used as a casino and also that it could only be used as a casino. The school is now planning to sell the site for $23 million, but spent $400,000 a month to maintain the property for most of this year.
