Steve Wynn and Donald Trump Atlantic City Partners?
Steve Wynn wants to bring
Las Vegas style glitz and glamour to Atlantic City by teaming up with his former archrival Donald Trump for a $3 billion megaresort that could dominate the heart of the Boardwalk.
“Steve and I are talking about something very exciting and very interesting,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday. “It would be great for the state of New Jersey and Atlantic City, but it’s very preliminary.”Trump declined to disclose details, but people familiar with the plans said the aging Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino would be demolished to make way for a gigantic development project. It would encompass as many as four blocks of Boardwalk property from Missouri to Texas avenues and stretch out to Atlantic Avenue on the land side, at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway.The Trump-Wynn casino project also would include a hotel tower rising 50 stories over the beachfront and perhaps an entertainment pier jutting far into the ocean. A new tunnel underneath Pacific Avenue would be considered as one of the roadway improvements needed to accommodate casino construction.Wynn, who is renowned for transforming the Las Vegas market with megacasinos such as Bellagio, Mirage and most recently the $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas, wants to make a spectacular return to Atlantic City. He left in 1987 after selling the Golden Nugget, now known as the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort.The Trump Plaza site would put Wynn in the middle of the Boardwalk and give him a prime spot off the expressway corridor, the main entrance into the city. Earlier, Wynn met with Gov. Jon S. Corzine to discuss the possibility of redeveloping the city’s former Bader Field airport, but was told that site would take too long and prove too costly to convert for a casino.Although Trump says the two are good friends now, the casino titans were bitter enemies for years and opposed each other in earlier plans for casino and road projects in Atlantic City.“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “If Steve and I got together, it would be really amazing. The combination would be an amazing thing for New Jersey and Atlantic City.Neither Wynn nor his company has commented on the Trump discussions. Wynn has been talking privately to Gormley since May about possibly returning to Atlantic City to be part of the resort’s red-hot $5 billion-per-year gambling market.Trump and Wynn represent the biggest names in the casino industry. Trump is the chairman and largest individual shareholder of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., owner of Trump Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and Trump Marina Hotel Casino. His status as a celebrity CEO has been solidified by his hit NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”Atlantic City Casinos
Las Vegas style glitz and glamour to Atlantic City by teaming up with his former archrival Donald Trump for a $3 billion megaresort that could dominate the heart of the Boardwalk.
“Steve and I are talking about something very exciting and very interesting,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday. “It would be great for the state of New Jersey and Atlantic City, but it’s very preliminary.”Trump declined to disclose details, but people familiar with the plans said the aging Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino would be demolished to make way for a gigantic development project. It would encompass as many as four blocks of Boardwalk property from Missouri to Texas avenues and stretch out to Atlantic Avenue on the land side, at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway.The Trump-Wynn casino project also would include a hotel tower rising 50 stories over the beachfront and perhaps an entertainment pier jutting far into the ocean. A new tunnel underneath Pacific Avenue would be considered as one of the roadway improvements needed to accommodate casino construction.Wynn, who is renowned for transforming the Las Vegas market with megacasinos such as Bellagio, Mirage and most recently the $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas, wants to make a spectacular return to Atlantic City. He left in 1987 after selling the Golden Nugget, now known as the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort.The Trump Plaza site would put Wynn in the middle of the Boardwalk and give him a prime spot off the expressway corridor, the main entrance into the city. Earlier, Wynn met with Gov. Jon S. Corzine to discuss the possibility of redeveloping the city’s former Bader Field airport, but was told that site would take too long and prove too costly to convert for a casino.Although Trump says the two are good friends now, the casino titans were bitter enemies for years and opposed each other in earlier plans for casino and road projects in Atlantic City.“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “If Steve and I got together, it would be really amazing. The combination would be an amazing thing for New Jersey and Atlantic City.Neither Wynn nor his company has commented on the Trump discussions. Wynn has been talking privately to Gormley since May about possibly returning to Atlantic City to be part of the resort’s red-hot $5 billion-per-year gambling market.Trump and Wynn represent the biggest names in the casino industry. Trump is the chairman and largest individual shareholder of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., owner of Trump Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and Trump Marina Hotel Casino. His status as a celebrity CEO has been solidified by his hit NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”Atlantic City Casinos
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