• Sands Casino Atlantic City Demolition Permits
• Sands Hotel Atlantic City
• Top Casinos In Atlantic City

Sands Casino in Atlantic City to be Imploded Thursday, October 18, 2007 ATLANTIC CITY – As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer: 'It may once have been among the runts of Atlantic City's casinos, but the fabled Sands Casino Hotel will be going out with a big The Sands in Atlantic City is slated for implosion. 2 days ago  The impending implosion of the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino is attracting a lot of attention for Atlantic City these days. And, for good reason. The city recently announced a public auction where some lucky winner (or winners) will be a part of history and press the button to implode the building. Proceeds from the highest bid will go to the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City. 23 hours ago  ATLANTIC CITY — Bids to push the button and implode the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino have topped $175,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. Bids on the demolition.

Date: 2007
Collection Number: H058

Scope and Content:

This collection contains 76 digital photographs in JPG compressed format, taken over the course of August, September, and October 2007. The photographs depict the demolition work at the Sands Casino in Atlantic City before its implosion on October 18, 2007. There are five photographs from the night of the implosion. The collection includes interior and exterior photographs.

System of Arrangement:
Photographs are arranged by date. An inventory of the images is below.
This is a digital collection, burned to CD-Rom in December 2007. It is also stored on the hard drive of the Heston Room computer. Reference prints are available in the Heston Room.

OTHER INFORMATION FOR USERS OF THE COLLECTION
Access Points:
Sands Casino – Atlantic City (N.J.)
Pinnacle Entertainment
Wrecking – New Jersey
Construction and demolition debris
Related Materials: The Library has many books related to the Casino industry in Atlantic City. Those interested in this topic should search the Library Catalog , using subject headings like:
Casinos – Economic aspects
Casinos – New Jersey
Casinos – Social aspects
Gambling – New Jersey – Atlantic City
Gambling – Social aspects
Within the Heston Collection, related holdings include Vertical Files on the Sands Casino and Pinnacle Entertainment, periodicals with articles relating to casino spending and management, and reports about the economic impact of gambling on Atlantic City.
A related collection of archival material is the Stan and Mary Sladek Collection of Sands Casino Memorabilia, 1980-2004 (H014).
Processing Note: The collection is processed. Finding aid written by Heather Halpin, archivist, December 2007.
Copyright Notice: The Atlantic City Free Public Library owns the collection and the copyrights. Those wishing to reproduce materials from the collection must contact the Library to obtain the proper permissions.

ITEM LIST

Finding aid published 15 January 2008.

Sands Casino Hotel was demolished Thursday night. It took less than 20 seconds for the 21-story, 500-room tower to come crashing to the ground shortly after 9:30 p.m. in the first implosion of an East Coast casino.

The demolition makes way for a mega-casino to be built on the Sands site by Pinnacle Entertainment at an estimated cost of USD 1.5 billion to USD 2 billion. The as-yet unnamed complex is to open in late 2011 or early 2012.

As a fireworks display bathed the area in multicolored flashes of light and a public address system blared Sinatra crooning „Bye Bye, Baby,“ Governor Jon Corzine and Pinnacle chairman Daniel Lee pushed a wooden-handled plunger connected to a wire running to the building to set off the explosions.

A series of 17 loud booms echoed, tenths of a second apart. After a delay of about five seconds, the building keeled slightly to the northeast _ exactly as demolition crews said it would _ and collapsed on itself in a roar of debris and dust.

Rocky Merrill, the former chief engineer at the Sands, once had to cut doors into the walls of an entire floor of rooms so Sinatra and his pals could mingle without having to go out into the hallway. „It was a very homey place,“ he said. „Everybody felt at home there.“

When it opened in August 1980, the Sands was called the Brighton Hotel & Casino, taking its name from a popular Atlantic City hotel of days gone by. Standing outside the building among a crush of people waiting to get in on the first night was Lee, who had graduated from business school months earlier and landed a job with an investment bank that financed casinos, though not the Sands.

Years later, as chairman and CEO of Pinnacle, Lee was on hand to watch the Sands come down on his 51st birthday. „This is the first building that I was in when it opened, and that I’ll be there when it blows up,“ he said, and added that his new casino will meet the challenge of the new cutthroat competition in Atlantic City, where multibillion-dollar resorts are pushing older casinos out of business. The test, he said, is „to compete in this new world, or be the next implosion.“

In its heyday, the Sands offered top-name entertainment. Sinatra played his final public concerts there in November 1994 at The Copa Room. Others who graced the stage included Sammy Davis Jr., Cher, Liza Minnelli, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal and Gloria Estefan.

It was the first Atlantic City casino to offer poker. But at 5,299 sqm of gambling space, the Sands had become the smallest of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos before it closed last November. Its decor, while evoking the Sands in Las Vegas, was seen as dated here.

Sands Casino Atlantic City Demolition Permits

The Sands, like many other casinos here, lost gamblers and revenue to newer, larger, flashier competitors, particularly after 2003 when the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa opened and redefined customers’ expectations of what the casino experience should be like in New Jersey. By 1998, the Sands had already filed for bankruptcy, and two years later financier Carl Icahn took control of it.

Sands Hotel Atlantic City

He sold it to Pinnacle last year for USD 250 million, and the new owners quickly made plans to wipe it off the map. The new complex will not use the Sands name. The new casino is to be built on the 18-acre site on the Boardwalk and will have 2,000 hotel rooms and 1,114 sqm of gambling space, along with convention and meeting room space, high-end retail shops and a large concert hall.

Top Casinos In Atlantic City

„It’ll be a spectacular property,“ Lee promised, refusing to go into detail. „We’re studying the best of the top hotels in Las Vegas and around the world, and there will be some new things that are not done anywhere else.“ The company expects to break ground next year.