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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — On the one-year anniversary of the closure of Atlantic City's Showboat casino, Stockton University said Monday it is weighing "several" expressions of interest in the property it now owns and hopes to sell it soon.
The university's board of trustees held a special meeting to consider the offers. Acting president Harvey Kesselman said afterward it could be sold shortly.
"This special meeting was called so that board and senior leadership could discuss the various terms and offers being proposed and evaluate which would be in the best interest of Stockton," Kesselman said. "We look forward to bringing this to a conclusion in the near future."
Stockton bought the shuttered casino for $18 million last December, hoping to turn it into a satellite campus. But competing legal claims and restrictions over how the property can be used have prevented that from happening.
After Caesars Entertainment closed the Showboat in the name of reducing competition in the struggling Atlantic City gambling market, the company imposed a deed restriction preventing the property from ever being used as a casino again. That directly conflicts with a 1988 covenant among Showboat, the Trump Taj Mahal and Resorts mandating that the Showboat not be used for anything other than a casino.
Stockton filed a claim in the Illinois bankruptcy court where a unit of Caesars Entertainment is having its Chapter 11 case heard, asking the judge to sort out the matter. That has not yet happened.
It was not clear how — or whether — a new purchaser of the Showboat property would be able to avoid the entanglements of the competing restrictions on its future use.
Former Stockton president Herman Saatkamp retired this year after the Showboat deal hit the rocks.
In April, the school tried to sell the Showboat to Glenn Straub, who also owns the former Revel casino, but that deal fell through.
Straub envisioned the Showboat as part of a $500 million multifaceted Atlantic City redevelopment plan he named The Phoenix Project.
Stockton still hopes to open a satellite campus elsewhere in Atlantic City.
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Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
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