Stakeholders: Master plan will benefit Atlantic City businesses beyond casinos

February 03. 2012 2:08PM

Stakeholders: Master plan will benefit Atlantic City businesses beyond casinos

Local business officials and advocates hope a new plan to transform Atlantic City's tourism district can breathe new life into local industry and nongaming businesses in the resort city.

Objectives of the plan, adopted Wednesday by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, call for improving the city's Boardwalk and major corridors, including business-rich thoroughfares like Atlantic and Pacific avenues. Joseph Kelly, president of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce, said the blueprint has a "healthy" mix of attention to gaming and nongaming businesses, which "speaks loudly about the need to diversify our product."

"Come the 10th of every month, we judge ourselves by one number — our gaming number that comes out," Kelly said, referring to state-compiled monthly gaming revenue reports. "But the goal is to look at dining, entertainment and retail, and I think this really pays a lot of attention to diversifying the product."

The Atlantic Avenue business district has managed to avoid widespread struggles and shop closings during the recession, said Pamela Fields, executive director of the advocacy group Main Street Atlantic City. Local merchants have been supported by city residents, she said, but less so by tourists.

That's why Fields, whose 14-block district includes about 80 businesses along the corridor, lobbied to have Atlantic Avenue included in the first phase of the CRDA plan. She expects the plan to produce investments in public safety, beautification, housing and promotional efforts, she said.

"Of course the merchants will benefit because there are now invested dollars in area that for so many years has been a blight," Fields said. "This is why we're hoping the commitment … to enhancing the downtown's appearance will give the attractive look for tourists that come here."

The goal of the state-mandated plan is to turn the city into an economically viable destination that operates year-round, said Israel Posner, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton College. That means "all kinds of support services have an opportunity to benefit."

"You're talking about everything from the local dry cleaner, to the grocery store, to a local pizza shop — because employees on their way to and from work and during lunch will probably be taking advantage of these other businesses, as well," Posner said. "It's a question of getting the city activated with employees and with a broad array of tourists."

The master plan calls for building new pedestrian areas along Pacific Avenue that include promenades and walking paths. Posner said nearby businesses will benefit from the improvements because the street "is kind of a hybrid that is both going to attract hospitality and tourist trade, as well as people who live and work in the city."

While the tourism district master plan will strengthen small businesses, Kelly said the city's casinos will only benefit from the improvements. He pointed to planned sound, lighting and entertainment upgrades along the Boardwalk, which CRDA aims to turn into an "uninterrupted entrainment zone."

"These become magnets to have people come to the marketplace," Kelly said. "So the more we become a must-see place, I'm confident that the casinos will get their share of that business back. So I think it's really about attraction and extending ourselves as a destination."