Just in time for the busy summer season on the Jersey Shore, the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City now offers long-term rentals.
According to a press release from Philadelphia’s Tower Investments, the Showboat is currently offering weekly and monthly rentals on fully outfitted studio, one-, and two-bedroom luxury apartments.
Tower Investments President and CEO Bart Blatstein bought the former hotel and casino in January 2016 for $23 million. The Showboat reopened as a non-gaming hotel in July of that year.
“Open now for our third summer, we know how much our guests enjoy staying with us at Showboat,” said Blatstein in a statement.
“I’ve always believed in Atlantic City and my confidence hasn’t wavered. We continue to see exciting momentum and want to continue to be a part of that. New offerings like this will just keep making this great city even better and more attractive to guests.”
What the Showboat apartments include
The Showboat’s beachfront apartment rentals start at $1,300 a week for studios, $1,800 for one-bedrooms and $2,400 for two-bedrooms.
Each suite features a full kitchen with a dishwasher, oven, stovetop, refrigerator and microwave. Housekeeping services are available to provide linens and towels, and there are on-site laundry facilities.
Renters will also have access to storage space, complimentary parking, and the Matrxx, 24-hour, 14,000-square-foot fitness center on the property.
Blatstein said that offering guests the option for long-term stays just makes sense:
“We’ve been extremely successful in hosting meeting and conventions and have found the visitors who stay with us don’t want to leave. Now, they don’t have to. They can come and stay and enjoy all the city has to offer for as long as they’d like.”
The Showboat’s many faces in Atlantic City
Of course, the property first opened on the Boardwalk as the Showboat Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center in March 1987. It started with a 60,000-square-foot casino and a 60-lane bowling alley.
Harrah’s Entertainment, which is now Caesars Entertainment, bought out the property’s parent company in 1998. In 2001, Caesars shut the bowling alley down.
Two years later, Caesars added a new hotel tower. Caesars also made major improvements to the rest of the property over the next decade. This included the opening of a House of Blues, which faces the Boardwalk.
However, in June 2014, Caesars announced plans to close the Showboat to focus on its other Atlantic City casinos (Bally’s, Harrah’s and Caesars). Caesars finally shut the doors in August 2014.
In December of that year, Stockton University bought the property for $18 million. The university planned to turn it into a residential campus. However, that plan failed and Blatstein stepped in a little over a year later.
Blatstein has breathed new life into the Showboat by reopening it in phases. He started with 852 oceanfront rooms and suites in 2016. Then, he opened all 1,331 rooms and suites in the summer of 2018.
A new Showboat Casino?
For now, the Showboat Hotel remains a non-gaming property.
When Hard Rock Casino and Ocean Casino Resort opened nearby on the north end of the Boardwalk last summer, Blatstein began taking a serious look at gaming again.
Hard Rock and Ocean Casino did open in June 2018. Nine months later, in March 2019, the state’s Casino Control Commission granted Blatstein preliminary approval to go after an NJ gambling license.
Blatstein is now pursuing the license, hoping to break ground on a new Showboat Casino on a plot of adjacent land.
Those plans are still in the working stages. In the meantime, the AC hotel’s new long-term apartments are available for rent.