ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.-
Steel Pier, the amusement and entertainment complex on the New Jersey shore, is getting a one-year reprieve from the wrecking ball.
Slated for demolition to make way for a luxury development project, the pier will be allowed to remain open this year, its operator said.
“The lights, rides and attractions will again be a beacon of family entertainment in Atlantic City in 2007,” Anthony Catanoso, president of Atlantic Pier Amusements Inc., told The Press of Atlantic City.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. still plans to use the pier for a housing development once it gets the necessary approvals.
“Design, development and approval are still needed, but construction probably will start next year, so the pier has only one more year to go,” Mark Juliano, chief operating officer of Trump Entertainment, said.
The pier, which opened in 1898, billed itself as “The Showplace of the Nation.” Built mainly of steel pilings with a wooden top, it jutted a quarter-mile out to sea, and offered first-run movies, clowns, acrobats, dancing bears, boxing kangaroos and high-divers, in addition to bands, singers and vaudeville acts.
Catanoso, whose family has run the pier since 1992, was crushed when word came down last year that Trump planned to use the pier for something else.
“We were very depressed. Very disappointed,” Catanoso said. “After spending 15 years running the pier, it was really a kind of surreal moment, thinking we wouldn’t be operating it again.”
