The Sahara Boardwalk Hotel and Casino was a proposed hotel and casino that was to be built in the late 1970s and early 1980s in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...

. The site of the proposed project was located at Albany Avenue and the

Boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway typically built with wooden planks, which functions as a type of low water bridge or small viaduct that enables pedestrians to ...

, between the original Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino and the proposed Dunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City) project. However, because of financial and legal difficulties, construction of the hotel/casino was never completed and the site was sold in 1982.

History

The site was acquired in September 1978. Initial plans were to construct a 30 story building with 506 rooms and a 43,400 square foot casino. On the site was the 13-story President Towers Apartment Hotel. The property had opened as the President Hotel in 1926. In 1968 it was converted to an apartment building, with 212 units. By some accounts, it was the site of the

Atlantic City Conference The Atlantic City Conference, held between 13 and 16 May 1929, was a historic summit of leaders of organized crime in the United States. It is considered by most crime historians to be the earliest organized crime summit held in the US. The confe ...

in 1929, where the leaders of organized crime met to discuss their future plans and operations. The building was demolished in August 1979. However, no further construction was done on the site. The project was owned by the Del E. Webb Corporation, a real estate development company and the owner of several other casinos in Nevada, including the

Sahara Hotel and Casino The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. The name "Sahara" ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. They also bought an interest in the Claridge Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City in 1979. The company experienced difficulties obtaining a gaming license from the

New Jersey Casino Control Commission The Casino Control Commission is a New Jersey state governmental agency that was founded in 1977 as the state's Gaming Control Board, responsible under the Casino Control Act for licensing casinos in Atlantic City. The commission also issues lic ...

. The

New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of New Jersey that was established in 1977 under the Casino Control Act, N.J.S.A. to ensure the integrity of the casino gaming industry, including spor ...

had opposed granting a temporary license for operating the Claridge Casino. The company was awaiting trial in connection with the assisting of illegal kickbacks during construction of an addition on the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The company had also been accused of providing prostitutes for high-rollers at its casinos, receiving illegal rebates on beer purchases, making illegal political contributions, and lacking sufficient credit and financial controls. After the company was acquitted in the kickback trial, and management was shuffled around, they were granted a casino license for the Claridge in 1982. Del Webb was experiencing financial problems in the early 1980s and abandoned the Sahara project. The land was sold to the original Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in 1982. In 1983, the adjacent Dunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City) project purchased an option to buy the land to expand the intended construction of their hotel/casino. However, it got entangled in bankruptcy and litigation and reverted to the Golden Nugget. The property was subsequently owned by a number of companies, most recently by AC Gateway LLC, which had proposed to develop the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City) in 2011.The AC Gateway Project : Wally Barr and Curtis Bashaws Plans For The Dunes, Sahara Atlantic City and Old Atlantic City High School. 10th December 2007. atlanticcitytripping.co

/ref> However, that plan was abandoned and as of 2014 the site remained vacant and was being used as a parking lot.

References

{{coord, 39.349, -74.453, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United States Unbuilt casinos Casino hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey that never opened