Showboat Casino Back On The Block After Judicial Order
By David Madden
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) -- A New Jersey state court has given Stockton University the green light to find another buyer for the shuttered Showboat Casino in Atlantic City.
The school wanted to set up a campus there, but competing restrictions blocked them from doing anything with the property. A sale to developer Glenn Straub stalled. The decision in Superior Court allows Stockton to shop the Showboat to anyone. But analyst Joe Weinert with the Spectrum Gaming Group says the legal issues are just bogging things down.
"Frankly, I think everybody in these parts is tired of them," Weinert says. "They just want to see the building put to good use and they don't understand how or why these restrictions are still in place."
What's holding it up are legal covenants that restrict the building's use. One requires it to reopen as a casino. Another mandates its use as anything but a casino.
"The fate of the Showboat is a big guessing game here in Southern New Jersey and has been for many, many months now," Weinert says. "Regardless of what happens, I think everybody just wants to see something happen there."
Under the order, Straub gets $26-million he placed in escrow to pay for the Showboat returned to him. It does not, however, address the quandary over the Showboat's future use.
Straub will appeal the judicial order.