Atlantic City: Is the boardwalk empire on the rebound?

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – “Wow, isn’t that place dead?”

“Everything closed up there, right?”

These are the comments I’ve gotten over the last few months when I told friends I’m reporting on the struggles of Atlantic City. Whenever I go into a long explanation about the city’s history and its attempt to reinvent itself again, they’re probably sorry they asked.

First of all, Atlantic City is not dead. If you look in the right direction, it’s alive and well. Earlier this month, my production crew and I got the last open table at Dock’s Oyster House on a Tuesday night. At the new Golden Nugget, there were lines of people waiting to play in a slots tournament. The crowd was shoulder-to-shoulder walking through the upscale Borgata. As long as you’re inside one of AC’s thriving establishments, listening to the dinging slot machines and club music, you’d think everything is fine.

But it’s not.

“I don’t have health care,” the barista told me at a coffee shop in one major casino. “My husband lost his job, and I’m a contract worker, not in the union. I wish I had a union paycheck.”

Atlantic City has lost almost half of its casino jobs – about 21,000 since 2003. The closure of Trump Plaza, Revel, Showboat and Atlantic Club (formerly the Hilton) are huge scars on the boardwalk.

Scattered empty lots sit just beyond the beach dunes. In almost any other part of the country, developers would be fighting over beachfront property, racing to build mansions or condos. Instead, the “auction” signs hanging off buildings reveal people simply don’t want to move here. One major reason is that unemployment is almost three times the national average.

“Millennials are going to be the future of Atlantic City,” Mayor Don Guardian told me recently.

The optimistic, energetic, first-term Republican told me he’s focused on diversifying the city’s economy.

The mayor took me inside the new Pier Shops at Caesars, an indoor main street that will be lined with bars and restaurants. An infinity swimming pool will overlook the ocean and the mayor describes a new concert venue with a big “mosh pit.” He hopes these 500 new service jobs will put a dent in the employment problem.

But Guardian says the city also needs to become a university and medical town, further diversifying employment opportunities. If he’s successful, these higher-skilled, better-paying jobs will be the backbone of the new Atlantic City.

Those caught in the middle, however, are the casino workers who have devoted their careers to the industry, lured with promises of middle-income salaries, health care and pensions. Some, like workers at the Taj Mahal, once the city’s second-highest-grossing casino, are seeing their benefits slashed and growing incensed at the billionaire casino owners they view as greedy.

Still, average revenue at the remaining casinos is up. The least-profitable casinos are the long-neglected older ones. With faded signage and burned-out lights, they no longer appeal to millenials, the mayor’s target audience.

As the city launches efforts to rebrand itself, it’s still a casino resort town. I was so impressed by some of the places I saw while reporting that I’ve decided to host my 40^th birthday party here in August. While I thought it would be a cheap weekend, it turned out some of the newer hotels are charging more than $700 a night on a Saturday. Now, I’m moving my party to weekday when you can still get rooms for $50. That’s right: $50 for a $700 room.

In Atlantic City, plenty of things are still a gamble.