So many Atlantic City casino employees are happy to have once worked for Dennis Gomes, the one-time head of the Golden Nugget, Taj Mahal and Tropicana casino hotels here in Atlantic City. Hopefully many more A.C. hospitality workers will get the same chance in the future. Gomes announced this week that he has teamed up with the Cordish Company to form Gomes+Cordish Gaming Management, according to a press release issued on Tuesday.
I've interviewed and conversed with Gomes on numerous occasions when his love for and belief in the Atlantic City market was so colorfully expressed. While the Borgata is often credited for Atlantic City's most recent renaissance, Gomes' conceptualization for The Quarter at the Tropicana began long before ground was broken on Borgata. Gomes is a visionary who has been credited for revitalizing sagging properties and inspiring employees under his tutelage. Of course his partners in this venture are equally high on Atlantic City and also have a track record for creating excitement in the city that's "Always Turned On." The Cordish Company has long been known for revitalizing distressed urban areas to create vibrant entertainment and retail districts like Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Atlantic City's own immensely successful outlet shopping district, The Walk.
In the press release (distributed by former Tropicana Marketing VP Sherry Amos) it states that the new company's first venture will be the development of a casino entertainment complex at the Indiana Downs racetrack. Gomes made headlines earlier in the year for a fruitless effort to buy one or all of the Trump casino properties here. We know that Gomes+Cordish has the wherewithal to either buy an existing casino to redevelop or to build a new one from the ground up. Here's hoping we get the opportunity to welcome Gomes (and Cordish) back to town.
The Atlantic City Weekly family shared in the loss this week of long-time contributor and friend Sandy Posnak. Sandy, whose final contribution to our newspaper ("Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?") appears on page 52, loved reviewing restaurants and casino shows. She was always fair in her reporting and wrote with a unique flair that was her signature for the many years she wrote for Atlantic City Weekly and its predecessor, The Whoot. She had the rare gift as a reviewer to write from the viewpoint of the other diners and audiences around her, being careful not to let personal bias impact the quality. We contemplated whether publishing her review of Darren Romeo's musical magic show this week, so close to the time of her passing, would be insensitive or morbid. But the more we reflected upon it, the more apparent it became that Sandy would have wanted us to publish the piece. She enjoyed the show, enjoyed writing the review and would have been pleased that our readers have the chance to read it. Sandy succumbed to cancer after a courageous battle that lasted for more than a year. As saddened as we are by the loss of our friend, our great sympathies are extended to Sandy's family, who have already had a most difficult year, having lost Sandy's husband and soulmate Dan just eight months ago. Dan was also an AC Weekly contributing photographer. I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to work and associate with the Posnaks. I've met few souls in my lifetime as genuine and kind as they both were.
Send your opinions or comments via e-mail to editor@atlanticcityweekly.com, via fax to 646-7338 or via regular mail c/o "Letters to the Editor" to the address below.
Dennis Gomes, CEO and co-owner of Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel, died overnight on Thursday, Feb. 23, of unconfirmed causes, according to reports and information released by Resorts spokeswoman Courtney Birmingham.
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