What to know
- A spot on the Atlantic City Boardwalk where movie stars, athletes and rock stars partied and a future president hone his instincts for bravado and hype was reduced to a smoking pile of rubble on Wednesday morning.
- The former Trump Plaza casino was imploded after it fell into such disrepair that chunks began to peel off the building and crash to the ground.
- And the demolition of the one-time jewel of former President Donald Trump’s casino empire paves the way for an excellent development opportunity right in the middle of the Boardwalk, where the Plaza marketed itself as “ the centerpiece of Atlantic City. ”
A spot on the Atlantic City Boardwalk where movie stars, athletes and rock stars partied and a future president hone his instincts for bravado and hype was reduced to a smoking pile of rubble on Wednesday morning.
The former Trump Plaza casino was imploded after it fell into such disrepair that chunks began to peel off the building and crash to the ground.
And the demolition of the one-time jewel of former President Donald Trump’s casino empire will pave the way for an excellent development opportunity right in the middle of the Boardwalk, where the Plaza marketed itself as “the centerpiece of Atlantic City.”
“The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the world map has been truly incredible,” said Bernie Dillon, the casino’s events manager from 1984 to 1991. “Everyone from Hulk Hogan to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was the whole range of personalities One night before a Tyson fight I just stood still and looked in about four rows as the place filled up, and there was two guys leaning over and had a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. ”
“It was so many times: you let Madonna and Sean Penn walk in, Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson, Muhammad Ali would be there, Oprah was ringside with Donald,” he recalled. “It was a special time. I’m sorry it’s going away. “
Demolition crews had placed explosives at strategic points along the building’s support structures designed to knock the legs out from underneath, causing the building to fall on its own, with the debris falling in a slightly northeastern direction, Fire Chief Scott Evans said.
“It will crumble like a deck of cards,” he said.
Although the former president built it, it is now owned by another billionaire, Carl Icahn, who acquired the two remaining Trump casinos in 2016 after the latest of their many bankruptcies.
Mayor Marty Small suggested that the demolition be used as a fundraiser for Atlantic City’s Boys And Girls Club, starting an auction for the right to press the button that would bring down the building.
But Icahn – a donor and former Trump special economic adviser – objected to security and liability issues and got the auction house to stop the bids. Icahn said he would replace the $ 175,000 already bid with his own money.
Opened in 1984, when Trump was a real estate developer in his pre-political days, Trump Plaza was for a time the most successful casino in Atlantic City. It was where mega events like a Mike Tyson boxing match or a Rolling Stones concert were held next door at Boardwalk Hall.
We are only a week away from what could become the biggest event of the winter for Atlantic City, New Jersey; the implosion of the former Trump Plaza Casino Hotel. The event is expected to attract many people who want to see the monumental building disappear. Ted Greenberg of NBC10 shows us where people can and cannot be.
Ron Gatewood, a food and beverage associate at Trump Plaza from 1986 until its closure in 2014, brought food and drink to stars like Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Barry White in their hotel rooms.
“They were very down to earth people,” Gatewood recalls. ‘They’ve never made you feel less than. They tipped very well. Some did. “
The casino even had a cameo in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven”. When George Clooney and Brad Pitt recruited actor Bernie Mac’s character to help with a Las Vegas casino heist, they plucked him from Trump Plaza, where he was a dealer.
Bob McDevitt, chairman of the main casino workers’ union, said the place radiated glamor and buzz when it first opened.
“When there was a Tyson fight, it was like New Years Eve all over town, huge traffic jams,” he said.
But things started to turn sour for Trump Plaza when Donald Trump opened the nearby Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, with crushing debt loads that prompted the company to pour most of its resources – and cash – into the shiny new hotel and casino.
“As soon as the Taj Mahal opened, the plaza began to decline,” McDevitt said. “To make sure the Taj Mahal was successful, they shipped all the high rollers from Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle to the Taj, and they really didn’t invest much in the Plaza.”
The Trump Taj Mahal, one of the casinos that Icahn acquired, has since reopened under new ownership as the Hard Rock.
Trump Plaza was the last of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014, victims of an oversaturated casino market in both New Jersey City and the greater Northeast. At the beginning of 2014 there were 12 casinos; there are now nine.
By the time it closed, Trump Plaza was the worst performing casino in Atlantic City, withdrawing as much money from gamblers in 8 1/2 months as the market-leading Borgata did every two weeks.