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Revel to Foot $1 Million Bill for Garden Pier Remodeling

Posted on April 5th, 2011

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In a bid to spruce up the Garden Pier to keep up with the flashy times in America’s second biggest gambling market, Revel Entertainment Group is dedicating $1 million to remodel the pier’s facade. The back portion of the facility will also undergo a major facelift that’s also going to cost up to $1 million. This was declared by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority following a previous commitment to make the facility more attractive to patrons and mainstays. The Garden Pier currently hosts the Atlantic City Arts Center and the Atlantic City Historical Museum, both beloved icons in the Tri-state area. “We’re prepared to invest money to make it look better,” said Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis following the CRDA’s declaration. The Garden Pier also sits beside Revel’s biggest mega project yet, a $2.5 billion gaming facility and entertainment complex that’s due to open in a year’s time.

In the intervening years, the Atlantic City government has chosen to close and re-open the facility multiple times but there has been no lasting effort to finally bring the pier back to life. Previous assessment by personnel from the City’s structural and public works division has declared the facility unsafe due to corrosion and weakening of the underlying structure. However, according to Nicholas Talvacchia, a lawyer representing Revel, the $2 million total in Revel spending has not been verified to ensure full structural reliability for the pier. There are still no finalized lists to which the funding would be used. If signs from DeSanctis are to be believed, the repairs will most likely only address cosmetic issues rather than structural ones.

An independent engineer who refused to be named does not believe that $2 million is sufficient to do a complete structural overhaul on the pier. The Garden Pier is now 2 years short of 100 years old. It first opened in 1913 and got its name from the elaborate moldings along the concrete pilings at the end that’s out into the sea. Over the years, the constant action of storms, waves, wind, rain, snow and sun has reduced the structural integrity of the 1,500-foot pier which has been in the government’s ownership since 1944. the back-end portion that’s being planned for demolition used to house a Grand Ballroom that was washed by the Great Atlantic Hurricane in the summer of 1945.

The city has not lacked any effort in bringing the facility to its former glory including a failed plan to cede ownership and control of the pier to private or corporate hands. In the face of many failed attempts, the plan to sell the pier was also contemplated twice, once in 1989 and then again in 1999 only to not have any offers that the government was willing to accept. Revel together MGM Grand were in talks with the government at various points to buy the pier but nothing came out of the discussions. DeSanctis and Talvacchia were quick to add that those talks are not being revived. “Everybody has a different view on what should happen on the pier, but right now you can’t put too much weight on it. Economically, I don’t know that buying it would be a smart decision right now,” said DeSanctis.

Revel’s offer came at an opportune time as a survey by the city government, administered by Mayor Lorenzo Langford, identified the back-end of the pier as the city’s third-worst eyesore. Revel has also committed another $1 million to demolish those other eyesores around the city identified by the poll. The pilings to be taken out of the pier’s back-end will eventually find a new home as part of the Great Egg Reef, this confirmed by the Division of Fish and Wildlife of the Department of Environmental Protection. An estimated 6,000 cubic yards of concrete from the demolition will be jettisoned onto the reef, around eight nautical miles to the southeast of the current pier’s location at the Boardwalk and New Jersey Avenue.

The new addition to the sea floor should provide fertile nesting grounds for barnacles and mussels which should eventually attract other forms of sea life to enhance the ecosystem in the area.