ACprimetime Radio Podcast. Hard Rock Happiness. March 4, 2017


As we reported two weeks ago, Hard Rock entertainment will soon be the new owner of the former Taj Mahal Casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. That is very good news for this section of our wooden way that was sitting empty and quiet for much of the summer of 2016 all thanks to daily picketing by using 54 members many of whom did not want to strike against Taj Mahal owner Mr. Carl Icahn . But that’s another story for another day.

It looks like by the summer of 2018 hard rock will be up and running on that massive property the Taj Mahal. This is certainly good news for Anthony Catanoso…the man who runs Steel Pier, right across the Boardwalk from the former Taj Mahal. This should also speed up development of the $14 million observation wheel the 227 foot high, new age Ferris Wheel that’s been sitting offshore in containers ready to be erected on the historic Pier.

The Taj Mahal Casino has been closed since October 10. It will soon be controlled and owned by a group of investors one of them being Hard Rock. They’re teaming up with two well-known developers in the area Jingoli and Morris. Jingoli is best known for the current redevelopment of the Albany Avenue area site of the former Atlantic City high school. Moving very fast at building the brand-new Stockton University Boardwalk campus here in Atlantic City. They call it the Island campus. I like to call with the Boardwalk Campus, a much cooler, more intuitive name. I’ll have to ask Dr Harvey Kesselman if he agrees with me, when ACprimetime visits with the Stockton President in a few days.

Getting back to HARD ROCK & TAJ, it looks like $300 million is what it will take to allow Hard Rock & Jingoli and Morris to transform this massive property. One of the biggest, if not the biggest footprints in Atlantic City. Maybe the best part of the story is that it’s probably gonna provide up to 3000 new temporary and permanent jobs.

We always had a sneaking suspicion that Hard Rock was going to eventually take over the former Taj. One clue: Hard Rock Cafe was staying put. Even though it was quite dead down on that side of the Boardwalk in front of the shuttered TAJ. Hard Rock Cafe knew that eventually the mother ship would come in and save that property. Operating through thick and thin even with the casino hotel shutting down back in October 2016.

Another success story or another smiling adjacent property would be Bart Blatstein’s Showboat Hotel. That certainly bodes well for his investment in the former Showboat Casino now focused on being primarily a Showboat Hotel that’s good news. This should also boost evaluations of Blatstein’s recently purchased volleyball court / parcel of land, a spot in between Showboat and the former Revel Casino Hotel. And Garden Pier, right in front of the former Revel, now owned by Bart and his Tower Investments, that value most likely has increased from its $1.5 million price tag.

So does Glenn Straub and his former Revel casino
benefit from the Taj Mahal purchase by hard rock? In the long-term probably yes. But we think in the short term, the value or the interest in getting the Revel up and running is muted at best. Think about it, what investor now wants to come in and try to deal with Mr. Strabo and get the former Revel up and running while knowing that arguably one of the most successful aggressive and smart brand names hard rock is getting to ready to launch just down the Boardwalk? What’s our guess?

We like to speculate just a little bit. We think that Mr. Straub will eventually find it more advantageous to sell. Still no gaming license for Straub, or his partner/tenant in the property Robert Landino. Both have NO Gaming Licenses.

REVEL property will most likely see half-decent profit since Straub purchased it for just $82 million. The building price was closer to $2 billion. We believe now this is pure speculation, that investors that might gain access to that incredible property formerly known as the Revel and the surrounding southeast inlet area, we like to see the Jing goalie people in the Morris people gain access to those parcels of land and that property, because they’ve already proven that they can get things done and get to work fast. We also think that Mr. Jing goalie would like to get his power plant back which would happen if Jing goalie investors would be able to acquire Revel we would assume that the powerplant in the backyard Revel would be a part of that deal.

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