Vol. 5, No. 6, June 2008
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Interview: Curtis Bashaw
Curtis Bashaw, Partner, Bashaw-Barr
Curtis Bashaw is one of the most dynamic developers in and around Atlantic City. He began his career in Cape May, where he transformed historic Congress Hall into one of the gems of that Victorian town.
As former director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, Bashaw worked closely with casino executives and public officials to extend the influence of Atlantic City across the entire Jersey Shore. His dedication to improving the Boardwalk has already paid dividends; his sense of style will become evident when the Chelsea, a boutique non-gaming hotel, opens this month in Atlantic City.
But Bashaw’s big play is a $2 billion project he is directing with former Caesars Entertainment CEO Wally Barr at the western end of the Boardwalk. While the scale and design are still being planned, it’s evident that Bashaw will remain a player in Atlantic City for many years to come.
He met with Casino Connection Editor Frank Legato in May. To hear the full version of this interview or others, go to http://www.casinoconnectionac.com/podcast
Casino Connection: What will the Chelsea offer that casino hotels do not?
Curtis Bashaw: One thing is intimacy, in that it is on a much smaller scale. Second, we won’t have the constant din of slot machines as a backdrop. Finally, we’re really able to focus on the core competency of a hotel, which is service. Because we’re renovating two older buildings (a Howard Johnson and a Holiday Inn) there’s not just a small lobby and rooms and a restaurant. There are several restaurants, a big spa, two lobbies, the 5th Floor destination space with additional living room/game room, two bars… There’s a lot of elbow room at the Chelsea.
What kind of market are you targeting?
Folks who may not be card-carrying rated gamblers, the more casual gamer who comes to Atlantic City for a weekend to take in some of the shows and the new shopping or dining opportunities here. There’s a demand for an upscale non-gaming property. Instead of your choice being a casino or a B- or C-rated motel, we offer something in between. The casino hotels are very full in the summertime and on weekends. We want to capture that overflow.
Talk about the rooftop “destination,” one of the unique aspects of the Chelsea.
Absolutely. There’s a rooftop swimming pool on top of the parking structure of the old Holiday Inn. That floor used to be the meeting room floor. We’ve converted that entire space. There are two large living rooms with comfortable furniture, and Chelsea Prime, an upscale steakhouse operated by Stephen Starr with the vibe of a 1960s supper club—very black and white. There’s a great bar overlooking the ocean.
Facing the bay is a game room with a pool table, an oval-shaped bar completely upholstered in crushed velvet walls—very Old World and romantic—and the Terrace Lounge. It’s a place with a DJ, an opportunity to cut loose. All that spills out to this 15,000-foot roof deck with a pool, cabanas and an outdoor bar and circles back to the outdoor dining part of Chelsea Prime. So it’s an entire destination that we think is going to be like the town’s living room.
What kind of music? Clubby?
Not thump-thump-thump, so loud you can’t enjoy a cocktail and a conversation. We want to be a little bit more low-key in the vibe. Maybe it’s a place people go before they go to dinner or that late-night spot, or where folks who are a little older than their 20s may go for their last stop. There will be classic music, some jazz and blues, certainly American rock. It will be a nice spot for people to get together.
Restaurateur Stephen Starr is opening two places in the Chelsea. How did you first get together with him?
Stephen Starr is a terrific person, a visionary in his own right. He’s done a great job in Philadelphia, took New York City by storm a couple of years ago with Buddakan and Morimoto, and brought some good restaurants to Atlantic City. When we were negotiating to buy the Chelsea with Howard Johnson’s and the Holiday Inn, there was an article in Philadelphia magazine saying, “We wish somebody like Stephen Starr would come to a cool hotel in Atlantic City.”
It wasn’t long before we met through mutual networks. I showed him the properties and he immediately grasped the vision. We definitely were sort of soul mates on the notion of bringing a really fun, independent boutique hotel restaurant product to the Atlantic City scene.
Let’s move on to the proposed casino resort, the Atlantic Beach Resort.
Well, we haven’t named the casino per se. The real estate partnership that bought the land was called the Atlantic Beach Gateway, because we feel the Albany Avenue corridor is a wonderful gateway to Atlantic City. We love the location; it’s on a great beach on a great end of town. We think there are synergies with the prospects of what might happen at Bader Field too. So the project will be 1,500-2,000 keys out of the gate with a large gaming floor, meeting space and all the amenities you’d expect from a new casino project.
You’re planning a huge development—a larger gaming floor than any current casino—210,000 square feet?
Yes, we have a fairly large gaming floor. If you’re going to go through the process of doing a development like this, you should make sure you have the capacity to really do well. The critical mass is important to attract the right customer base and mix.
You will have 300,000 square feet for retail, dining and other non-gaming amenities. Is this is an important trend?
Absolutely. Atlantic City was a resort before it was a gaming town. To really re-emphasize the resort component is important; in fact, it’s essential. As all the states around us work to get their hands on gaming revenue, it’s eroding our former base, the four-to-five-hour visitor who came to play the slot machines. So our view is that Atlantic City will move back to its resort roots as some of the four-hour visitors are siphoned off to other markets.
Bashaw/Barr is partnering with major investment banks on this project. Will that make it easier to finance in this tight credit market?
The credit markets are bleak for all development right now. That choppiness needs to settle down, and it will. That said, having partners with real muscle in the financial community makes a lot of sense, and if you have a shot at getting something financed, it’s good to have partners who understand the markets and are well-versed in manipulating and managing them to help projects get done.
I don’t think anybody will rush into something when rates are too high or the debt-to-equity ratios make it tough to take a project to pencil.
Bashaw/Barr declined to bid on the Trop. Did you consider it at all?
It seemed to us at the time there were lots of numbers swirling around that seemed a little rich. Wally obviously has a lot of experience in the marketplace here, and with the credit markets the way they are and the fact we’ve got all this other stuff we’re doing, we felt it wasn’t our time to step to the forefront. We’ll see what happens at Trop, and we’ll look forward to meeting our new neighbors, whoever they may be, as we open up the Chelsea this June.
Will you move the war monument and the Knife & Fork as discussed by the planning board?
In conjunction with the city planners and the state transportation folks, we’ve submitted a plan we think vastly improves the access from the bridge into town, reconfiguring those intersections to soften them and make the traffic flow better. We have also proposed relocating the monument to Memorial Park. We think it’s a really great spot. Obviously, we’re going through a whole public process on that.
We’re way out front with historic preservation, so the plan with the Knife & Fork would be to actually relocate the building a block a way, and as the new roadway configuration curves into town, the new location of the Knife & Fork will feel exactly like where it is now. It’s a neat plan.
What’s your general outlook on the Atlantic City market?
Vegas has shown us there is plenty of room for growth here. We’re a tank of gas away from 25 or 30 percent of the U.S. population. That’s staggering. We have to rise above the stereotype that the place is a little unorganized and seedy. We’ve got to believe in ourselves as a community and raise the bar on the sort of press that goes out from here nationally. We need to get past scandals and have leadership that’s setting a new standard to help lead this resort well into this century.
For additional information about The Chelsea visit their website at http://thechelsea-ac.com/
