Former Trump Plaza Casino Implodes on February 17, 2021
On February 17, Trump Plaza went down due to a rigorous work of several demolition crews – as onlookers watched the fall from the beach. The implosion was scheduled for January 2021 but was postponed till February after Carl Icahn issued a cease-and-desist letter to Atlantic City.
The event also raised money for the Boys & Girls Club of the city, a nonprofit organization founded in 1970 to make positive differences in the lives of Atlantic City youth. It’s unknown, though, whether the ambitious $1 million charity goal was achieved, but Carl Icahn himself donated $175,000 t the Boys & Girls Club as a replacement of the money that a charity auction could have raised for the right to press the demolishing button: the action was canceled as potentially dangerous for both the demolisher and the crowd nearby.
It took no more than 20 seconds for the building to collapse as a series of explosions rocked it on Wednesday around 9 a.m. The city Mayor Marty Small admitted that it was a ‘historic moment,’ ‘it was exciting,’ and had chills. The remaining debris is to be removed in the coming months. After that, the area will be open for a potentially lucrative development, the one that might replace and surpass the glamour of the former Atlantic City’s centerpiece.
About Trump Plaza
Once a favorite gambling destination and hangout place for celebrities and the former president himself, Trump Plaza closed its doors for visitors in 2014. The year it was purchased by Carl Icahn, a famous American businessman, was almost abandoned. Before the closure, the casino was generating only a tiny fraction of what it was supposed to, an abysmally small 1/18 of Borgata’s revenues, the market leader of the time.
Going back to the prosperous days of Plaza, Bernie Dillon, the former events manager, recollects: “The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the map for the whole world was really incredible. One night before a Tyson fight, I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about four rows in as the place was filling up, and two guys were leaning in close and having a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. It was a special time. I’m sorry to see it go.”
