The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey on Friday announced that it has formally purchased the shuttered Showboat Atlantic City for $18 million from Caesars Entertainment.The college will convert the former casino into an “island campus designed to spur economic and community development and help prepare Atlantic City’s workforce for the jobs of the future,” it said in a news release.
Stockton had announced plans to buy and convert the site in November, but did not release details of the transaction at that time.
“Stockton is committed to southern New Jersey’s continued social and economic development,” Herman Saatkamp, president of the Galloway-based institution, said in a prepared statement. “Our roots officially began at the former Mayflower Hotel in Atlantic City and, as our campus has expanded, so has our mission to provide higher education, research and community partnerships that enhance the region and state.
RELATED: Stockton College to buy Showboat casino, turn it into branch campus
“As Stockton develops a full-service residential campus awarding undergraduate and graduate degrees and other professional training, the opportunities for city residents to find good jobs will rise. The Stockton-Island Campus will help provide area residents with access to a distinctive Stockton education, helping them compete in our global society.”
Stockton said it used investment funds to purchase the 1.73 million-square-foot property that sits on 26.28 acres alongside the Boardwalk, neither tapping state appropriations nor creating new debt. It added that tuition will not rise as a result of the purchase.
The college also said a portion of the facility would continue to operate as a hotel, with that portion up and running in late spring 2015. Classes would begin at the site next summer, with a full schedule starting in the fall semester.
The Island Campus is expected to increase Stockton’s 8,570-strong student body by another 4,000 within five to 10 years, the college said.
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