It’s dynamite time for Trump Plaza in Atlantic City — and about time. The pertinent question seems to be how owner Carl Icahn is going to get rid of this eyesore or, more specifically, how he’s going to pay for it. 
Rather than shell out his own money, Icahn is looking to tap the Investment Alternative Tax fund that the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority collects. Provided that Icahn has something more than a vacant lot in mind for the space, it sounds like a good and logical idea. Icahn wouldn’t raid other companies’ levies but is asking only for monies paid in by Tropicana Entertainment. Most of the casino is destined for a spring implosion, with only one hotel tower and the parking garage being spared.
“The demolition would open several acres of premium oceanfront property that could attract millions of dollars in investment,” reports The Press of Atlantic City. We certainly hope they’re right. Besides, one less vestige of Donald Trump on the Boardwalk is a good thing. As for that old Holiday Inn tower, it’s cheek-by-jowl with Caesars Atlantic City and would make a logical acquisition for the latter, now that it’s in a buying mood.
* Gaming lucre has given political heft to Minnesota‘s Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, owners of Mystic Lake Casino, with its “cavernous casino floor is on par with Las Vegas brand names like MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay.” That wealth has gone, in part, to derail the progress of Internet gambling. Mystic Lake, after all, has no reason to want its patrons staying home and playing on the Web. A tribal lobbyist also says the Trump administration is putting forward “downright dumb ideas” on tribal policy, adding, “I’m very concerned that the budget President Trump put forth is the first budget that took Indian Country backwards.”
* Sam Nazarian has extended his empire to the Bahamas, opening SLS Baha Mar at the troubled casino metaresort.
David – there wasn’t an old Holiday Inn tower at Trump Plaza. The original tower was built new as part of Harrah’s at Trump Plaza. The east tower was built out of the uncompleted Penthouse Casino. There is, however, a tower at Caesars Atlantic City that was once a Howard Johnsons.
@theycallmeflip: At the time of its consruction, Harrah’s was owned by Holiday Inn. The original tower was sometimes known as the Holiday Inn Tower since Holiday Inn was thought to be instrumental in its design.