Dunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City)
| Dunes Hotel and Casino | |
|---|---|
| Location | Atlantic City, New Jersey |
| Address | Albany Ave. |
| Opening date | Never |
| Theme | Desert |
| Number of rooms | 504 |
| Total gaming space | 34,000 sq ft (3,200 m2) |
| Casino type | Land-based |
The Dunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City) was a proposed hotel and casino that was to be built in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the late 1970s. It was initially proposed to consist of 504 hotel rooms and a 34,500 square foot casino located at Albany Avenue on the Boardwalk. It was to be the southern most hotel/casino on the Boardwalk, adjacent to the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino. Due to financial and legal difficulties, the hotel was never completed and a casino license was never issued.
Development initially consisted of the purchase of the President Motor Inn and Mayfair Apartments at the site. Construction began in 1979 with the demolition of the President Motor Inn and the project was involved in the Abscam investigation. The project was halted in 1980 due to lack of financing, at which time it consisted of a two-story skeleton structure. The project was owned by Continental Connector Corp. (which later changed its name to Dunes Hotel Casinos, Inc.), which also owned the Dunes in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company was controlled by Morris Shenker, a St. Louis attorney who had represented Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters union. Shenker had been investigated by the federal government because of his ties with organized crime. In the early 1980s, Shenker developed financial problems, leading to his filing for bankruptcy in 1984.
In April 1983, San Diego real estate developer Jack Bona took over the project as majority owner in a joint venture with Shenker's company. Bona was a major borrower at San Marino Savings & Loan with his partner Frank Domingues, with large losses on $194 million in loans contributing to the thrifts' failure in 1984.
In 1983, Bona purchased an option to buy an adjacent lot [site of the aborted Sahara Boardwalk Hotel and Casino project] from GNAC Corp., a subsidiary of Golden Nugget, Inc. for $18 million. He also obtained financing on the existing site in 1983 from the San Antonio Savings Association with a mortgage loan for $14.9 million. Plans for the project were expanded to encompass 664 rooms and a 60,000 square foot casino. Bona later took over full control of the casino project but experienced financial difficulties and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 1985. Just prior to the bankruptcy he had tried to sell some of the proposed rooms as condominium units.
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