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Stockton University's deal to convert Showboat in jeopardy:
Stockton University's transformation of the shuttered Showboat casino property into an "island campus" in Atlantic City - touted as a game-changer for the embattled local economy and the school - is in jeopardy, with the university announcing Tuesday that Trump Entertainment is seeking to block the move.
Trump Entertainment will use a 1988 legal covenant with Caesars Entertainment Inc. - the former Showboat corporate parent - to prevent Stockton from reopening the property as a school and hotel, according to the university. The covenant, first reported by the Press of Atlantic City, would prevent the property from being used as anything other than a first-class casino-hotel.
"Stockton tried to establish a full campus in Atlantic City six times during my tenure as president and got kicked in the teeth each time," Herman Saatkamp, Stockton's president, said in a statement. "This time, we were stabbed in the heart."
In December, Stockton bought the property from Caesars Entertainment Inc. for $18 million. The school said it would reopen the 1.73 million-square-foot Boardwalk casino-hotel for some classes this summer, with a full opening this fall.
Stockton also planned a hotel on the site, a potential resource for students in the university's hospitality programs.
Saatkamp has said the site would have hosted 4,000 to 6,000 students in about 20 classrooms, 10 lecture facilities, and studios and instruction rooms for music, dance, choral, and theater programs.
If Stockton cannot resolve the dispute, Saatkamp said in his statement Tuesday, the school will sell the property.
"Simply stated, we would be saddled with an all-cash outlay with no revenues in return. It would be unconscionable to submit Stockton University's financial stability to this risk and delay," he said. "Doing so endangers the cost of student tuition and creates the potential for job loss among faculty and staff. We cannot afford to just hold this building with no incoming revenues while the two casinos play their own gamesmanship."
Representatives for Trump and Caesars did not immediately return calls for comment.
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