The Morning Call

$3 billion project proposed for ex-airport in Atlantic City

- By Wayne Parry

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — 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 the largest tracts of buildable land near the ocean on the East Coast.

Tower Developmen­ts and Post Brothers this week unveiled plans for a project they call Casa Mar, a water-intensive developmen­t inspired by the canals of Amsterdam.

It would be built on the former Bader Field site.

Tower’s CEO is Bart Blatstein, who owns the Showboat Hotel and other properties in Atlantic City. Post Brothers has built 8,000 apartments and 700,000 square feet of office and retail space in and around Philadelph­ia since 2006.

He called it “a once-ina-lifetime opportunit­y for Atlantic City.”

“It’s going to be modeled on the canals of Amsterdam, with canals cut through the property,” Blatstein said. “It came from embracing the water and realizing we can create a lot more waterfront property.”

It would include 10,000 units of multifamil­y housing, 400,000 square feet of retail and office space, and 20 acres set aside for walking trails and public recreation­al space.

Blatstein also called for “an open and transparen­t process” to select a project for the site.

The proposal is but the latest in a string of plans for the 143-acre site, owned by the city but controlled by the state under a 2016 takeover law giving state government power over most of Atlantic City’s major decisions.

The state would have to approve any plans for the land before work could begin.

The proposal follows one unveiled in February by DEEM Enterprise­s, a company based in both Los Angeles and Atlantic City.

That $2.7 billion recreation­al, residentia­l and retail project aimed at car lovers would include a 2.44-mile auto course on which car lovers can drive their highend automobile­s; about 2,000 units of housing in various price ranges; a retail promenade; and other autothemed attraction­s.

Mayor Marty Small endorsed 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 would succeed. Walter Wellmann lifted off in the dirigible America, only to ditch it off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, when a storm hit shortly afterward.

Entertaine­rs bound for Boardwalk ballrooms, business travelers and even U.S. presidents regularly flew in and out of Bader Field, but it remained the domain of small planes and private pilots. Bigger jets landed at Atlantic City Internatio­nal Airport about 9 miles away.

The city tried several times to sell the land, setting a $1 billion minimum price in 2008 but expecting at least $1.5 billion for one of the largest parcels of developabl­e land.

 ?? WAYNE PARRY/AP ?? A runway at the former Bader Field airport with casinos in the background Feb. 18 in Atlantic City, N.J. A proposal for the former airport site includes housing and canals.
WAYNE PARRY/AP A runway at the former Bader Field airport with casinos in the background Feb. 18 in Atlantic City, N.J. A proposal for the former airport site includes housing and canals.

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