Nothing lasts forever but not everything gets to choose how it ends, or go out with a bang, for that matter. Even the things that are built to last can be brought down with a remarkable speed and finality, too.
Just look at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
In its heyday, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was a hub of nightlife on the New Jersey shore.
Many locals remember the hotel and casino’s glory days of the ’80s and early ’90s, when the site attracted a wide variety of clients and hosted major events, including several big boxing matches and Wrestlemania IV and V.
“They were the best years of my life,” Mike Pellettieri, a bartender who worked at the hotel for 24 years, told NJ.com .
“The camaraderie that existed down there (at the bar) was like Hollywood of the ’40s, people shooting there for money to make a good living.”
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But the Trump Plaza’s heyday didn’t last.
By the time it finally shuttered in 2014, the Trump Plaza was Atlantic City’s poorest performing casino, NPR reported.
At the time, Donald Trump said that he had sold much of his interests in casinos. “I let them use my name, but I have nothing to do with it,” he said, according to NPR. “I got out seven years ago — my timing was impeccable.”
Since 2014, the Trump Plaza has been sitting vacant, increasingly an eyesore.
The site changed hands in 2016 when billionaire Carl Icahn purchased the property along with the neighboring Trump Taj Mahal — which he later sold to Hard Rock Cafe International — NPR reported.
Although Icahn has yet to announce any plans for the site, as NJ.com reported, it has long been clear that the building would have to come down to make way for anything new.
The fateful day for the Trump Plaza finally came February 17.
And the implosion of the building became an event of its own, although city officials discouraged large crowds from gathering due to the ongoing pandemic.
The city had sought to auction off the right to press the button triggering the detonation to raise funds for charity, but Icahn blocked that citing safety concerns, while also ponying up $175,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City, AP News reported.
And so the hotel’s nearly 40-year run came to an end in about 30 seconds thanks to 3,000 sticks of dynamite.
Atlantic City livestreamed the event, and hotels with good views offered prime rates for those who wanted to watch it all come down in person. The city also set up a drive-in viewing area, charging $10 per carload.
The 80-foot pile of rubble that used to be the hotel is scheduled to be removed by June 10, after which point the area will be paved for parking pending a new build, NPR reported.
