ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (AP) — Two Philadelphia developers want to build a $3 billion housing, office and retail project on the site of a historic former airport in Atlantic City, the latest proposal for one of largest tracts of buildable land near the ocean on the East Coast of the United States.
Tower Developments and Post Brothers on Monday unveiled plans for a project they are calling Casa Mar, a water-intensive development inspired by Amsterdam‘s canals.
It would be built on the former site of Bader Field, which once housed an air facility that was the world’s first to be called an “airport.”
Tower’s CEO is Bart Blatstein, owner of the Showboat Hotel and other properties in Atlantic City. Post Brothers has built 8,000 apartments and 700,000 square feet (approximately 65,000 square meters) of office and retail space in and around Philadelphia since 2006.
He called it “a unique opportunity for Atlantic City.”
“It’s going to be modeled after the canals of Amsterdam, with canals running through the property,” Blatstein told The Associated Press. “It comes from embracing water and realizing that we can create a lot more waterfront properties.”
It would include 10,000 multi-family housing units, 400,000 square feet of commercial and office space, and 20 acres set aside for walking paths and public recreational spaces.
Blatstein also called for “an open and transparent process” to select a project for the site.
The proposal is just the latest in a series of plans for the 143-acre site, which is city-owned but state-controlled under a 2016 takeover law giving the government freedom of movement. state power over most of Atlantic City’s major decisions.
The state would have to approve all plans for the land before work could begin.
Monday’s proposal follows one unveiled in February by DEEM Enterprises, a company based in both Los Angeles and Atlantic City.
This $2.7 billion recreational, residential and retail project for car enthusiasts would include a 2.44-mile (4 kilometer) automobile course on which car enthusiasts could drive their high-end automobiles; around 2,000 homes in different price ranges; a shopping promenade and other automotive-themed attractions. Mayor Marty Small approved it in February.
Bader Field, which closed in September 2006 after 96 years of aviation use, gave the world the term “airport” when a local reporter used the word in a 1919 article.
In 1910, it was the scene of the first attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, 17 years before Charles Lindbergh succeeded. Walter Wellmann took off in the “America” airship, only to abandon it at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, when a storm hit shortly after.
Entertainers bound for the Boardwalk ballrooms, business travelers, and even U.S. presidents came and went regularly to Bader Field, but it remained the domain of small planes and private pilots; larger jets landed at Atlantic City International Airport about 15 miles away.
Bader Field is where the Civil Air Patrol was founded shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. But a series of fatal plane crashes embittered city officials about its use.
The city tried several times to sell the landsetting a minimum price of $1 billion in 2008 but expecting at least $1.5 billion for one of the largest parcels of developable land near the ocean on the US East Coast.
The idea was that at least three new casinos could be built there. Pennsylvania-based casino company Penn National offered $800 million, but the city held firm and no deal was ever struck.
___
Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Comments are closed.