AC Primetime w/ Mel Taylor. Atlantic City News, Info, Events.

'We cut salary and boat checks', said Jeffrey Chiesa, the man currently in charge of Atlantic City. Reformed Police and Fire contracts were the hot topic, so Chiesa called into the big radio show in town.

The former State Senator, Attorney General and current 'CEO' of the financially ailing city, Chiesa was a guest on the Harry Hurley WPG Radio show, on Friday morning, March 17. Click to listen.

What we all learned from that interview: in order to financially right size the city, the state wants to cut PD salaries, increase hours and eliminate some benefits. This would save the city about $20 million. Fire department cutbacks would save the city $14 million.

Harry Hurley provided recap / analysis from a March 13 memorandum he was first to acquire, that became effective March 15.

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State wants to change Atlantic City police & fire contracts:

* Reduction in salary, across the board

* Reduction in force. From 274 to 250 officers

* Increase health benefit contributions & prescription co-pays

* Changes to work week schedule and overtime pay

* Eliminate longevity and education payouts

* Eliminate terminal leave (so-called 'boat checks') at retirement

* 15 years to reach top pay. At one time, it only took 3 - 5 years.

Chiesa: Atlantic City Police Chief will have $210,000 salary reduced to new cap of $165,000

Social Media: Mayor Guardian using public safety crisis as way of pandering to Atlantic City voters.

Chiesa and State now confronted with lawsuits from AC police & fire. 'This exposes City to additional costs. It's a simple money grab, nothing to do with public safety,' says Mr. Jeff Chiesa.

The reality is...we can not continue to pay what we're paying . We don't have the money.

Protecting highest salaries & highest benefits. Rather than cutting under-performing  / problematic officers, Police Chief fingered 24 of the youngest / newest officers for pink slips.

Chiesa: The Mayor of Atlantic City is putting on a show.

Boat checks cripple the municipal budget. Terminal leave checks for up to $300,000 for unused sick/vacation/personal time: costs Atlantic City taxpayers $19 million dollars.

Press of Atlantic City: Judge ruling on March 17: NJ State CAN cut Atlantic City firefighters' pay & benefits....but CAN'T cut FD staffing down to 125 firefighters.

ACprimetime Radio talks with Steel Pier's Anthony Catanoso. Listen to the interview with Mel Taylor from March 15, 2017.

Preparation is now underway to place cranes & other equipment on the iconic Steel Pier on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

Special cranes will be used to erect the long awaited, 225 ft observation wheel that will overlook the Atlantic City Boardwalk by  late Summer 2017.

A side access road was built, along with a beefing up of the Boardwalk...in order to safely move heavy equipment back and forth across the boards in front of the former TAJ MAHAL.....soon to be Hard Rock Hotel Casino.

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LISTEN> Sweet. ACprimetime was able to finagle some up-close & personal talk-time with Dr. Harvey Kesselman, President of Stockton University. While the good Doctor is crazy busy with bringing Stockton to the shores of Atlantic City by Fall 2018, he was kind enough to invite us in for a little digital chit-chat. It was informative and fun.

We packed up the mobile ACprimetime Radio Podcast Studio and pointed our GPS to the Galloway campus of the very impressive Stockton University.

Some topics discussed & stuff we learned:

* Mayflower Hotel, The original, temporary Stockton on the Boardwalk....back in 1971.

* Dr. Kesselman once had longer hair than me. Much longer. A beard too.

* We're both South Philly & Delco (Delaware County, PA) guys.

* Stockton Safe vs Sanctuary.

* Atlantic City Campus, Island Campus or Boardwalk Campus?

* The skinny on those past Showboat issues.

* Yes, former Atlantic Club/Hilton/Golden Nugget property was considered, among other locations.

* Stockton is a designated 'anchor' project for Atlantic City. Creates positive ripple effect for Absecon Island economy.

* Dr. Kesselman is quite amused by my old Radio DJ name, Mel Toxic.

* I blatantly ask for a job at Stockton. I have no shame.

* Who are the smart peeps that design/develop Stockton expansion? Chris Paladino from AC Devco, Jingoli Construction, Stockton's in-house, skilled architect/facility development staff

* Bader Field potential. Ice rink, baseball field, slice of Bader for research.

 

 

Will Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian get a second term? Not if long time resident & former city employee Joseph Polillo has anything to say about it. LISTEN to the ACprimetime Radio Podcast for March 6, 2017.

Polillo is quite the man about town. Whip smart and well-bearded. Knows where most of the bodies are buried.

Well known for his Atlantic City postcard shop, King Neptune parade floats, and his position as former Director of Licence & Inspections for the city, 'Postcard Joey' is taking a serious look at running for Mayor of Atlantic City.

'Postcard Joey' Polillo is taking a serious look at running for Mayor of Atlantic City.

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.

Flushing more money?

Some topics we cover on the FEB 22 edition of ACprimetime Radio podcast:

* Bart Blatstein is Mr. 'Buy & Hold'.  Smart vulture investor, not so hot business operator. See: Playground Pier.

* CRDA $2 million toilet upgrade for Boardwalk Hall. More money being foolishly flushed?

* How to make AC more business friendly. Streamline permitting process ( AC Councilman Jesse Kurtz on Dan Klein Radio show )

* Councilman Jesse Kurtz: encourage street fairs, festivals. The struggle to make Atlantic City more business friendly. Streamline & simply permitting process. Remove unneeded red tape. Less paperwork. Encourage more events in Atlantic city. Event promoter. LISTEN > Dan Klein WOND Radio show: shouldn’t we entice producers to come in? Am I missing something?

* Chad Minnes is best known for his Lacey Cleaning company. And with that success, is able to invest $$ in SWFpro.com;  a professional wrestling show that draws 1,000+ to these family friendly events. Minnes wants to bring SWF to Atlantic City this Summer. How many hoops will he need to jump thru? How many diff departments will need to give the OK? City, state, CRDA, mercantile, license & inspections?

* New, but empty strip of retail stores next to Boardwalk Hall will stay vacant for the foreseeable future. TOLL BROTHERS (developer) is already looking to sell that property....just one year after completion. Can CRDA exert influence on TOLL BROTHERS...to use properties for ART SHOWS...or other 'pop-up' stores for the summer? CRDA sadly said 'no'.

Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has approved spending $2 million to upgrade four sets of out-of-service bathrooms at Boardwalk Hall. Renovation of eight bathrooms, not used in long time.

* If you are going to have a world-class facility, you can’t tell them that the bathrooms are unusable

* Project involves the pipes and other infrastructure. It’s not just fixing the bathroom.”

Blatstein’s “multifaceted entertainment destination with art, music and food” for Garden Pier. Former volleyball court, Tower pitched a $40 million “multi-use event center”. Blatstein bought lots using name: A.C. Main Street Renaissance.

Bye Bye Ocean Views

LISTEN > Atlantic City is already well aware of the harmful affects of mountainous dunes along the Boardwalk. And in a few weeks, Margate & Ventnor will get to enjoy some ugly dune building as well.

Listen to ACprimetime Radio Podcast. Here come the Downbeach dunes... featuring discussion on Harry Hurley WPG 1450 Radio show.

Obstruct the summer views & cool breezes on Absecon Island. These unsightly & un-needed sand mountains hurt home & business values as well. Most real estate agents think so too.

NOTE: sand replenishment IS needed in front of Showboat & REVEL.....as well as in Longport.

A handful of Margate homeowners kept up the good fight though. They dug deep and bankrolled their own lawsuit to keep fake dunes out of this section of Absecon Island. On Feb 3, those homeowners suffered another loss. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled the proposed dunes would NOT cause a nuisance, be a public health hazard, or harm any beachfront homes in Margate. The City of Margate reluctantly raised the white flag months ago.

In addition to unsightly, view-killing, mountains of sand, Margate ( AC & Ventnor too )  residents know all too well that flooding comes from back bay surge, not the front beaches. Bulkheads worked rather well.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection have been pushing to start dredging and pumping for years. They might get their wish, come this spring. Tractors, bulldozers and pump barges will fire up their diesel engines to begin the loud dirty work in early April. They’ll start in Atlantic City, and will work their way down towards Longport throughout the spring… and maybe early summer? We shall see.

The proposed dunes could be a whopping 100 feet wide and up to about 13 feet high.

Ventnor is now the only portion of the Absecon Island boardwalk where you can sit, walk and bike ride….and actually see the beach and ocean.

Why is unpopular dune project with limited benefit still moving forward? It’ all about the $63.3 million of taxpayer money specifically earmarked for this project. It’s waiting patiently to be spent. If not used for Absecon dune building, that cash goes back into the general fund, for use in future emergencies.

Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian says Atlantic County non-casino taxpayers should be OK with a smaller share of the hated, casino-friendly PILOT  bill. The good Mayor likely got un-friended and lost many Facebook followers after that statement got out.

LISTEN to Atlantic County Exec Denny Levinson. He responds on the Don Williams Radio Show. WOND 1400am.

In 2015, the Mayor signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Atlantic County Exec Denny Levinson for 13.5%. (SEE DOCUMENT BELOW)

As AC's financial outlook sunk ever further, Guardian had a change of heart about that 13.5%. The Atlantic City Mayor now wants to offer the county just 9.92 % – that's $4 million less per year for the county taxpayers. That's more than $40 million less... over life of the PILOT’s 10-year term.

https://youtu.be/VN72PdRZJ28

All of this could be a moot point. The signed document (MOU below) needed OK from City Council. That never happened. Many were miffed that Guardian went rogue and did a deal with Levinson.

County Exec Levinson says he's got a 13.5% deal. Mayor Guardian says 9.92%. The State says: you guys battle it out among yourselves.

Levinson says the Mayor of Atlantic City misses two important points. All 22 other county municipalities were opposed to the PILOT because they believed it unfair they should bear any costs for Atlantic City’s financial mismanagement. Second, as a result of the PILOT, casino valuations are artificially low.

Atlantic County Mayors are being blackmailed by Denny Levinson, so says Mayor Guardian.

'The Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce is getting political' says Mayor Don on the Harry Hurley Radio Show. Guardian is disappointed and downright rattled with the confusing actions of Chamber President, Joe Kelly. A frustrated Chamber membership is also scratching their heads. Why doesn't Kelly focus more on local business, tourism and new biz dev... instead of playing politics?

Listen to the FEB 8 edition of the WPG 1450am Harry Hurley Radio Show: ‘Ask The Mayor’. LISTEN >

Borgata Atlantic City sold 50 percent ownership for $900 million, while its total assessment is $880 million

The County Exec Levinson continues: The mayor also ignores the fact that since 2008, county taxpayers will have refunded the city $65 million because of improper assessments. Although property tax refunds are not unusual, the magnitude of these are – more than 40 times higher than the county with the lowest refund and three times higher than the highest in New Jersey. This cost must be paid by non-casino taxpayers.

The PILOT, payment in lieu of taxes freezes Atlantic City casino taxes until 2026.

Atlantic County, along with the Mayors Association agreed to 13.5 percent so taxpayers wouldn't have to pay a larger share of taxes...due to Atlantic City’s fiscal mess.

We recognized the PILOT was flawed and would negatively impact taxpayers. But the state and Atlantic City insisted it was vital. The county and municipalities gave their reluctant support only when the 13.5 percent was guaranteed.

Dennis Levinson, County Executive

 

Casino Control Commission Chairman Levinson

Thousands of new Atlantic City jobs were put on hold this week. Is that the fault of Casino Control Commission Chairman Matt Levinson...or former REVEL owner Glenn Straub? Read on and decide for yourself.

Straub feels that government regulations are the impediment, along with too much red tape. Straub (operating as a lessor under the name 500 Broadway) believes that since he’s leasing the casino to a third-party (Robert Landino), he shouldn’t personally need a casino license.

Straub attorney, the highly respected LLoyd Levinson defended the REVEL owner and sourced a section of the New Jersey Casino Control Act.

Listen to LLoyd Levinson defend Straub's position >

According to LICENSING & APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY, and to the untrained eye....it kinda looks like Straub does NOT need a license since he will NOT operate the casino. But in Levinson's remarks below, he strongly states that Straub has far too much control over the entire property, and has not sufficiently removed himself from future operations within that building. Thus, he would need a license.

                (1)  The commission, with the concurrence of the Attorney General which may not be unreasonably withheld, may determine that any person who does not have the ability to exercise any significant control over either the approved casino hotel or the operation of the casino contained therein shall not be eligible to hold or required to hold a casino license.

The Straub / Landino lease agreement: Ten / Landino would only control 900 of 1,500 rooms in the resort. Straub would control the rest.

This is not a lease of the entire casino hotel ( as Straub has pitched ) under the Casino Control Act,” said Levinson.

Casino Control Commission Chairman Matt Levinson Remarks from JAN 31, 2017

We are again here today on the application of 500 Broadway for a declaratory ruling on whether it needs any kind of license whatsoever since it leases parts of the former Revel building to a third party.  We are not here today to determine the suitability of 500 Broadway, Polo North or Mr. Straub to hold any such license.

Developer Glen Straub

Casino Control Commission Chairman Matt Levinson continues.....

In my opinion, we could dismiss this petition for several reasons.  We are asked to waive licensing for a landlord that does not own the land in question. The company that does own the land, Polo North, isn’t a party to this petition. Mr. Straub could have transferred the property to 500 Broadway, but he has failed to do so.  But rather than deny this petition on procedural grounds and delay the process, we will deal with the substance of the request by Mr. Straub and his companies.

500 Broadway plans to lease portions of the complex – including all of the gaming space – to an unaffiliated company, Revel North Beach LLC., which  does not currently hold a casino license.

Under Section 82 of the Casino Control Act, anyone who owns a casino hotel, is the lessor or lessee of a casino hotel or who has control over a casino hotel or the land it sits on is required to hold some sort of a casino license.  Mr. Straub and his companies fit all of those categories.

The question of the license status of a landlord is not a new one, in fact, it is something this commission considered for the first time more than 35 years ago.  In some instances, the owner of the property was required to get a casino license while in other cases owners had to get a Casino Service Industry Enterprise license.  In this case, Mr. Straub has not asked for a ruling on what kind of licensure, if any, is required.  He had that option.