The owner of Atlantic City, New Jersey’s, Showboat hotel plans to build a $100 million water park adjacent to the Showboat, with expectations that it will break ground beginning in August.
Bart Blatstein, who runs the Showboat as a casino-free hotel, applied Tuesday for a state tax credit to help pay the upfront costs for the yet-to-be-named water park.
The unnamed resort is targeted at vacationing families who find themselves with little to do in Atlantic City, Blatstein told the Associated Press in an interview.
“Atlantic City does not have a family market,” Blatstein said. “This will open up a whole new market that doesn’t exist.”
Although Atlantic City hosts an aquarium and a Ferris wheel, it is geared more toward adult gamblers.
Blatstein, a Philadelphia developer, is seeking approval from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to designate his water park as an entertainment retail district.
The designation would allow the project an annual rebate of up to $2.5 million in sales tax per year for 20 years, plus tax breaks on construction materials used to build the water park.
The indoor water park would be built on a parking lot between the Showboat and the Ocean Casino Resort at the Atlantic City boardwalk’s north end.
While Blatstein is pitching ideas for a family-friendlier Atlantic City, the casinos catered to adult tourists have seen a nosedive in their business since Gov. Phil Murphy ordered their shutdown on March 16.
As Atlantic City prepares to reopen to its adult tourists by accepting reservations in some of its resorts, casinos have been pitching their health and safety plans to state health officials.
New Jersey is still reeling from the effects from the coronavirus, with 157,815 confirmed cases and 11,463 confirmed deaths as of Thursday, making it the state with the second-highest number of cases after New York, according to recent data.
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