Pier Shops at Caesars sold for $25 millionBy Wayne Parry
Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY - In real estate, location is everything. But timing is important, too, even when you've got a killer location with a to-die-for view.
The breathtaking sights along the coastline weren't enough to save the Pier Shops at Caesars from the auction block; the luxury shopping, dining, and entertainment complex - designed to inject new glitz and glamour into Atlantic City - was sold Friday at a foreclosure sale.
The Pier Shops opened in 2006, when no one realized the Atlantic City market was at its height. The resort has since endured nearly five years of plunging revenue and lost market share.
Lenders including U.S. Bank N.A. bought the complex for $25 million plus $1, topping bids from a group known as Atlantic City Forum Shops L.L.C. Benjamin Zeltner, a lawyer representing Atlantic City Forum Shops at the auction, would not discuss the group or what it would have done with the complex had it won the auction.
Richard O'Halloran, the attorney who won the auction on behalf of the lenders, also declined to comment afterward.
The lenders are expected to continue operating the Pier Shops while seeking a new buyer.
The sale became necessary when the former owner, Taubman Centers Inc., defaulted on its mortgage. The mall developer owed nearly $150 million. The mortgage was canceled as part of the sale.
Taubman did not respond to requests for comment Friday on the sale, which was conducted on a sunny outdoor deck at the end of the pier jutting out over the ocean.
The idea behind the Pier Shops was ambitious: bringing high-end retail to the Atlantic City Boardwalk, where T-shirt shacks, pizza joints, and fortune-teller kiosks are the main fare aside from the casinos.
Retailers at the Pier Shops include Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany & Co., and Hugo Boss. Its restaurants include Buddakan and the Continental.
Crowds were sparse Friday, with most shoppers waiting in line for deals at a going-out-of-business sale.
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