Trump wins, Atlantic City loses

Long-suffering Atlantic City is going to stuck with one of the heaviest albatrosses around its neck — Donald J. Trump — for the foreseeable future. Das Donald’s $225 million cash offer for what’s left of Trump Entertainment Resorts trumped a $486 million credit bid by archrival Carl Icahn.

Aside from the fact that he’s not Donald Trump, Icahn’s primary selling points were a successful track record in the Las Vegas market and a promise to liquidate all TER debt. However, that would have left bondholders holding the bag, a decisive factor with Judge Judith Wizmur, who awarded the three casinos to Trump and his allies. They’ll still be carrying $334 million in debt — down from $1.7 billion but an onerous burden in the depressed Atlantic City market.

With characteristic modesty, Trump bloviated that his brand name was worth $3 billion alone. It’s not apparent that anyone asked him how, then, he accounted for the emaciated revenue streams at Trump Marina and Trump Plaza or for three bankruptcies. However, perhaps he realizes the public is tiring of his scowling mug and empty promises, because the new face of a reorganized TER will be … Ivanka Trump, as the company courts a younger, more with-it audience.

Beyond that beautification project, TER’s recovery plan has three basic tenets, at least two of them problematic. One is to sell Trump Marina. They’ve tried this before, it dragged on forever and eventually Trump crony Richard Fields (left) couldn’t even scavenge up the deeply discounted $270 million price. The Marina, meanwhile, has the puniest revenue stream in the market and is operating at a loss, raising the question of why anybody would buy it … and whether it would bring more than chicken feed at this point.

Plan B is to take on a joint-venture partner to improve Trump Plaza. Sound in theory, this also testifies to how little TER has in the kitty. While Trump himself is only a 10% shareholder now, he’s gummed up Atlantic City joint ventures in the past, so don’t discount his ability to throw a monkey wrench into the works of any JV deal. The third component of the master plan is, at some distant point, to redevelop Steel Pier as a hotel-casino, enabling one to gamble whilst cantilevered out over the Atlantic Ocean. Your guess is as good as mine as to how that’s likely to work, in terms of practicality … or what its actual likelihood is. Given the Boardwalk’s need for destination attractions, it’s worth a try.