Bader Field has been closed for nearly a decade as the city’s fortunes crashed. Now, the cash-starved gambling resort is looking to the former airport to help save it by putting it back on the market – at what could be a 90-percent-off sale.
Atlantic City put the 143-acre site up for sale in 2008, hoping to attract as many as three new casinos on a tract of land considered one of the most desirable coastal locations on the East Coast. That was right after the city’s casino market began to contract due to competition from casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania.
When Bader Field was first put up for sale, the city expected it to sell for at least $1 billion. Pennsylvania-based casino company Penn National offered $800 million in 2008, but the city held out, envisioning selling it for $1.5 billion.
Mayor Don Guardian said Atlantic City will set a minimum bid of $150 million – 90 percent less than the city thought it could get in 2008. His one caveat is that any money brought in by the sale be applied directly to Atlantic City’s $437 million debt – a liability that is a prime reason the state is trying to take over the resort’s finances and assets.