Park Place closing AC mall for renovation

John Curran

Monday, April 29, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- The Shops on Ocean One, a shopping mall built to resemble an ocean liner, will close this year for a two-year renovation project.

The 100-store mall will be closed by year's end and made over as a retail, dining and entertainment venue, reopening in 2004, owner Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas said last week.

"We've always said we plan to redevelop the Ocean One pier," said Park Place spokesman Robert Stewart. "This is the beginning of the process. We think we've got an exciting future for the Ocean One pier. We'll be talking more about what that future is as we get farther into the project."

Tenants were notified about the impending closing in a letter this week, he said. All but three were operating on month-to-month leases, so the announcement should not have come as a surprise, Stewart said.

Park Place, best known as a hotel-casino operator, is engaged in "amicable negotiations" with the others, whom Stewart would not name.

Built in 1983, the 900-foot long structure juts out from the Boardwalk and into the ocean, occupying the site of the former Million Dollar Pier.

Owned by Park Place Entertainment and managed by Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino, the three-story mall sells apparel, jewelry, candy and gifts.

At one point, Caesars' parent company had big plans for the site, including a $250 million project to add 250 hotel rooms, an Imax theater and an animatronic 120-foot statue of King Poseidon.

But the company was later sold and the renovation was shelved.

Five years ago, the city passed an ordinance clearing the way for casinos to expand onto the city's piers. But neither Steel Pier, Steeplechase Pier, Schiff's Central Pier nor Ocean One have been renovated as casinos, for various reasons.

Park Place does not plan any casino games for the pier, Stewart said.