New plan for A.C. modeled on success in New Brunswick

A report on New Jersey gaming that reimagines Atlantic City doesn't look to Las Vegas or New York for inspiration. It looks to one of its own: New Brunswick.

The authors of the report say the 35-year transformation of the small central New Jersey city, the home of Rutgers University, offers a model for turning around the struggling Shore resort.

In the mid-1970s, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson created a process for redevelopment through public-private partnerships - most significantly, through a tax-exempt development company specifically for New Brunswick.

"I believe New Brunswick is the most successful city in the state of New Jersey based on their business model, and we think the same thing can happen in Atlantic City," said Jon F. Hanson, the chairman of the commission that wrote the report released last week.

The 29-page document, which also includes controversial recommendations on the fate of New Jersey's racetracks and other sports facilities, has been endorsed by Gov. Christie and will now go to the Legislature, which could turn it into a plan for a possible public-private takeover of the city's gaming district.

"Instead of Johnson & Johnson, you have the casinos," Hanson said. "Our recommendation is that when someone gets up in the morning, their full-time job is to implement the public-private partnership."

In New Brunswick, the power of the public-private entity is limited largely to development. In Atlantic City, the partnership could hold more sway as a quasi-state agency with authority over municipal functions such as law enforcement, garbage collection, traffic flow, and the use of eminent domain for redevelopment.

The report calls for the creation of a new Atlantic City Tourism District in the casino and Boardwalk area - maybe a city-within-a-city akin to the Vatican - with autonomy over functions now handled by the city, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, and the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority.

Such an entity would be modeled after the Meadowlands District, a 14-town consortium in North Jersey run by a state commission that has final say over zoning and planning. The new entity would also control assets including the convention center and Boardwalk Hall, and could outsource policing responsibilities to the city's police department, Hanson said.

This gaming district would be run by a new body called the Atlantic City Tourism District Commission, made up of state and local government officials. The commission would work with something called the Atlantic City Partnership, a consortium of businesses, particularly casinos.

That's where the Johnson & Johnson model in New Brunswick comes in. In that city of 50,000, the New Brunswick Development Corp., or Devco, has overseen more than $1.6 billion in investment since 1976.

The Atlantic City Partnership, similarly headed by a chief executive officer with a small staff, would develop a "master plan" with the understanding that private capital "will be wary of government direction of economic development," according to the report.

The new partnership should expand the Boardwalk and bring in new entertainment options (such as boardwalk purveyors from other Shore towns, a NASCAR track, or a drive-in theater), according to the report. It would use the beach and marina more effectively and help make the area "clean and safe" to counter the perception of the city as crime-ridden.

Finally, the report envisions that through its recommendations on regulatory changes, the casino industry would save as much as $25 million in the first year, and all of that money would go to the new Atlantic City public-private partnership.

It is unclear how all of this might affect Atlantic City's residential population, which has not traditionally benefited from the casinos' prosperity.

In New Brunswick, a key component of the partnership is New Brunswick Tomorrow, a nonprofit that works on the "social revitalization" of the city - coordinating social-service providers, churches, and schools - while Devco handles the physical development.

"Where most urban revitalization efforts have fallen short is they don't consider the social end of it," said Jeffrey Vega, New Brunswick Tomorrow president.

If the Atlantic City Partnership works with people on this level, then citizen and political support for the larger development projects will come more easily, Vega said.

"As the process begins in Atlantic City, I imagine there will be resistance," Vega said. "You win them over with time."

In 1976, when Devco was created, New Brunswick was at a "crossroads," said Christopher J. Paladino, Devco president.

After threatening to leave the city, Johnson & Johnson decided to stay and work with local politicians and Rutgers to bring a "critical mass" of people and activity to an urban area that had been a "sad place," Paladino said.

Restaurants were closing. Residents were moving out. Civil unrest was scaring visitors.

Today, he said, New Brunswick is on a roll. In the last five years, 2,500 additional people have moved into a five-block area in the city of 50,000. In the latest example of public-private partnership, Devco is working on a major mixed-use development at the city train station, with Rutgers, NJ Transit, and private developers all collaborating.

Devco has partnered with the municipality for a new public-safety building, with Rutgers for a dormitory, and with a city nonprofit for a cultural center. Its stated philosophy is to "serve as a catalyst for revitalization."

Devco's job is to bring the parties together and create the financing structure.

Doing the same thing in Atlantic City is a "bold stroke," Paladino said, but it's an approach used successfully throughout the country, including Times Square, where a special improvement district brought in workers to clean the streets and walk patrols.

"The governor is totally on the right track here," Paladino said. "You need a government entity that is reliable enough that the private sector and investors can have faith and confidence in it. And in Atlantic City, that doesn't exist."

Paladino said that as long as casinos are on board - and after last week's announcement they have indicated a willingness to work on renewal with the state - "it's absolutely possible" to reinvent Atlantic City.

For example, he said, the Atlantic City Partnership could find "the most exciting developers" of boardwalk entertainment in the world, and then build a financing structure that leverages government investment.

"Leadership is going to be critical," he said.

Also critical will be Atlantic City's success in handling its greatest asset - the ocean.

"You may need to make that the number-one feature," Hanson said. " 'We're going to go to Atlantic City, kids, because they have the best beach on the Eastern Seaboard.' "

Notably, the report does not reference Camden, where the state's complete political control from 2002 to January 2010 failed to bring long-term change.

And there are particular challenges in turning around Atlantic City.

First, there's no Rutgers, an entity that guarantees a constant flow of residents and workers, in good times and bad. Second, opposition also may mount from longtime residents and businesses, just as Devco has been criticized by small businesses for being forced to relocate to make way for new projects.

And this approach involving private industry working with government officials is not necessarily new. For example, a group called Main Street Atlantic City is trying to redevelop Atlantic Avenue, two blocks off the Boardwalk.

The group put up banners last week announcing its new branding for the avenue: "Live, shop, play."

"All of us right now are kind of speculating because it hit us all at once," said Pamela Fields, executive director of Main Street Atlantic City. "We're in desperate need of making some brand-new innovative, creative changes. We all need one another."