Early years The Trump Organization, a company owned by
Donald Trump, began construction of the casino in June 1982.
Harrah's, the gaming unit of
Holiday Inn, joined as a partner a month later. Trump would oversee the construction, while Harrah's would operate the property, referred to as '''Harrah's Boardwalk''', after opening. The complex contained 614 rooms, seven restaurants, a health club, a 750-seat showroom and a casino, all on a narrow plot of land next to
Caesars Atlantic City. Five months after opening, the name was changed to simply Trump Plaza, to avoid confusion with
Harrah's Marina. Part of the reason for this is that Harrah's was commonly associated with and attracted low-rolling gamblers, but Trump had built 85
high-roller suites, which were rarely used. The casino performed poorly, with pre-tax profits of just $144,000 in the first half of 1985. The poor results exacerbated disagreements between Trump and Harrah's, In 1989, Trump paid $62 million to purchase the neighboring, unfinished
Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, including a hotel tower that had formerly been a Holiday Inn, and a nearby parking lot. Trump expanded the Plaza onto the Penthouse site, renaming it Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino East Tower. Trump Plaza hosted the
WrestleMania IV and
WrestleMania V events in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Although the
World Wrestling Federation billed the events as being held at Trump Plaza, in reality Trump was only the sponsor of both events, which were held at the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall. From 1985 to 1998, the hotel was also the onsite host of 19
professional boxing program events. The casino was the scene of a notorious baccarat session in May 1990, in which the
Japanese high roller
Akio Kashiwagi lost $10 million. The incident was later fictionalized in
Martin Scorsese's film
Casino.
Decline Trump Plaza's revenues took a sharp decline in 1990, due to competition from its newly opened sister property, the
Trump Taj Mahal, which was a mile away. The casino narrowly averted default on a 1991 payment to bondholders by taking out a $25 million mortgage on its parking garage. The plan was submitted as a
prepackaged bankruptcy in March 1992. In 1993, Atlantic City casino development authority began condemning hundreds of properties, for the expansion of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. In 1998, a court stopped the condemnation of the Sabatini's restaurant, one of the properties. In 2005, Donald Trump agreed to buy the property for around $2 million, exceeding the first offer of $700,000. Construction of a $42-million expansion began in 1993. The plan called for demolition of the unfinished Penthouse casino, the addition of 30,000 square feet of gaming space, and renovation of the former Holiday Inn building to become Trump Plaza's East Tower, with 361 hotel rooms. Coking, represented by the
Institute for Justice, was victorious, and plans to build a limousine parking lot were thwarted. In 1995, Trump granted ownership of Trump Plaza to his new publicly traded company,
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (later Trump Entertainment Resorts). The company also acquired the Trump Regency hotel. The East Tower opened in two phases, in October 1995 and February 1996. The expansion continued with the May 1996 opening of Trump World's Fair, a $48-million renovation of the Trump Regency with an added casino, connected to Trump Plaza by a
loggia across the Atlantic City Convention Hall. In 2004, the building hosted
UFC 50. On May 24, 2011, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced that a decision would be made within two months to either sell the casino or to renovate and expand it, possibly with a joint venture partner. In February 2013, the company proposed to sell the property for $20 million to the
Meruelo Group, a California-based company whose businesses include the
Grand Sierra Resort in
Reno. Meruelo planned to make significant investments in the property and rename it. The deal fell through when
Carl Icahn, senior lender for Trump Plaza's mortgage, declined to approve the sale for the proposed price. ==Closure==