Nov. 26–One of Atlantic City’s few remaining historic hotels has been sold — seven years after it closed down and speculation began swirling about whether it ever would reopen for business or might fall under the wrecking ball.
A newly filed document with the Atlantic County Clerk’s Office confirms the sale of the Madison House, although terms have not been disclosed. Two Atlantic City-area real estate agents also confirmed the sale.
A settlement notice posted on the clerk’s website identifies “an agreement of sale” and the buyer as Shri Sai Plainfield LLC. No other information was available Monday other than an office listing in North Plainfield, Somerset County.
Atlantic County Clerk Edward McGettigan said a settlement notice typically is filed as a prelude to the final documents in a sale. He said a deed has not yet been filed.
The Madison House Group, headed by Florida investor George Levin, has owned the hotel for years. Levin did not respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment.
Levin’s attempts to sell the Madison go back at least to 2006, when the hotel was closed down. A number of would-be deals for the 14-story building appeared promising but ultimately fell through, including a $4 million auction last May.
Pinnacle Entertainment, a Las Vegas-based company, once had plans to buy the Madison and then tear it down to make room for a proposed $1.5 billion casino megaresort. Pinnacle later abandoned the casino project.
William Boland, a Ventnor real estate agent, had been trying to line up potential buyers for the Madison when the hotel went on the market this fall for $5.2 million. Boland said another agent was able to sell the property for Levin, but he had no other information.
“I believe it’s going to be used as a hotel,” Boland said of the buyer’s apparent plans to reopen the Madison.
Gerald LaHay, an agent for Levin Commercial Real Estate in Atlantic City, also confirmed the Madison has been sold. LaHay was not part of the deal with Shri Sai. LaHay noted there has been a lot of activity inside the hotel recently, apparently related to the sale.
Built in 1929, the Madison is accented by its red-brick facade, arched windows and a large cupola-like structure adorning the roof. On the inside, the building is graced with marble floors, old-fashioned chandeliers and a grand stairway modeled after the one at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Despite its stately Colonial Revival architecture, the Madison has been mostly closed since its affiliation ended with the old Sands Casino Hotel. The Sands used the adjacent Madison as a companion hotel for its gamblers, sinking $7 million into the boutique property in 2004 to transform it into all-suite lodging.
But when the Sands shut down in 2006, so did the Madison. Since then, the Madison has been sealed up, except for a brief time when it served as a youth hostel for foreign workers holding seasonal jobs in Atlantic City’s tourism industry.
The Madison has survived some major challenges over the years. The Depression struck shortly after it first opened. It also weathered a bout with bankruptcy in the 1960s and the arrival of Atlantic City’s casinos. Unlike most of the city’s other posh old hotels, the Madison wasn’t demolished to make room for new casinos in the 1970s and ’80s. It was its partnership with the Sands that allowed it to continue to operate.
Located about a block from the ocean, the Madison overlooks the southern tip of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just off the busy Pacific Avenue casino strip. Across the street is the site where the old Sands once stood.
The Sands site was recently sold to an investment group that has not yet revealed its plans for the property. The Madison’s buyer might somehow try to capitalize on redevelopment plans for the Sands site to bring business to the hotel.
The Madison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which gives it protected status, although it is hardly an ironclad guarantee that it could not be demolished.
Contact Donald Wittkowski:
609-272-7258
