The city, making good on its vow to seek new non-gambling attractions, has approved redevelopment plans including a giant Ferris wheel and a zip line on the beachfront next to the Steel Pier and restaurants, a rebuilt Boardwalk and an elevated walkway in its Inlet neighborhood.
The plans come as Atlantic City has lost four of its 12 casinos and is trying to make its tourism-centered economy less dependent on gambling.
The City Council on Wednesday approved an expansion of the iconic Steel Pier to make way for an already approved 62m tall observation wheel with enclosed, climate-controlled cars and a zip line ride. It also approved a redevelopment plan for the Northeast Inlet neighborhood including new eateries, entertainment and recreational facilities, a rebuilt Boardwalk and an elevated walkway to bring new business to the area.
“It’s a reinforcement of the importance of adding these other amenities,” Casino Reinvestment Development Authority executive director John Palmieri said.
The agency has already approved the Ferris wheel project and will be contributing about US$8.1 million of its estimated US$14 million price tag through a loan to be repaid from a portion of ride ticket revenue.
“It’s a good step forward in the ongoing effort to reinforce those non-gambling sectors,” Palmieri said.
It is also something Atlantic City has been talking about since 2007, the first year its casino gambling revenues posted a yearly decline due to the opening of casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania that ate into its customer base. Those revenues have plunged from US$5.2 billion in 2006 to US$2.74 billion last year as casinos continued to open in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. Of the eight Atlantic City casinos that survived last year’s slew of closings, three are in bankruptcy.
The wheel and its 40 cars are being built in Italy and should be delivered to Atlantic City by December. The start of an expansion of the Boardwalk to support the wheel and the zip line ride could begin within two months.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day