Ninety-nine workers lose their jobs Thursday at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel. The owner says the 502-room building closes Dec. 15 unless NJEDA approves $79 million in Aspire tax credits — and the state approved a Trenton project's award last week while this file sat.
Ninety-nine workers at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel are scheduled to be laid off Thursday under state notices filed this summer. The hotel's owner says the building closes December 15 unless the state approves $79 million in tax credits.
The notices sit with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development: a July filing, effective October 1, covering 99 workers, and a September filing covering 91 more, effective December 15. LINY Investor LLC, which owns the hotel, says the doors close if its Aspire application has not been approved by then. The credits run through Aspire, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's redevelopment incentive program; an Atlantic City project can qualify at up to $120 million.
A skywalk ties the hotel to the Atlantic City Convention Center, and the trade shows that fill the center depend on an attached hotel, tourism officials say. If the Sheraton closes, "we're done as far as conventions are concerned," Frank Formica, a member of the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority board, said last week, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
Gary Musich, president and CEO of Visit Atlantic City, told NJ.com: "Staff, exhibitors and sponsors need the convenience of a hotel as part of the convention center campus," Musich said.
The state cleared a $100 million plan to cut the hotel in half
The state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority granted the project site plan approval March 17. It would cut the 502-room hotel roughly in half, converting about 250 rooms into 130 age-restricted apartments, with the rest renovated as a smaller hotel. The Casino Association of New Jersey, the casino trade group, warned the conversion could hurt tourism.
On June 16, the Atlantic City Council adopted two ordinances granting 30-year tax breaks for the project, one for the renovated hotel and one for the residential conversion, as reported by Jersey Digs; the residential ordinance set aside 26 of the 130 apartments as affordable. Mayor Marty Small Sr. said at the March meeting, according to minutes, that the company "should be given the opportunity to redevelop a failing hotel that has long been underutilized and has not generated significant revenue."
Tom Scannapieco's Philadelphia firm, Scannapieco Development Corporation, built the hotel and held an ownership stake from the start, according to WHYY. His investor group, LINY Investor LLC, now owns it; Marriott leases the building, manages the hotel and employs its staff, per the statement LINY gave NJ.com. The WARN notices were filed by Headquarters Hotel Mgmt LLC, which operates the hotel under the Sheraton brand, according to NJ.com. Marriott had no immediate response to questions from NJ.com.
The furniture is original, 27 years old, Scannapieco said at a public hearing, according to the Courier Post: "We have the original furniture from 27 years ago. How many hotels have that?" The hotel has been a money-loser for years, according to WHYY. Sheraton has formally notified the group the building no longer meets its brand standards, he said, and without a major renovation "they will remove their name from the building. That would be a disaster for the hotel. It would be a disaster for the convention center, and it would be a disaster for Atlantic City at the entrance to the city."
A 500-room hotel lives on multiday conventions; the center books one-day consumer shows. The Convention Center "doesn't have the right type of business and enough of it," he said. And state development money has backed a rival before: Harrah's Waterfront Conference Center opened in 2015 with $45 million in CRDA assistance.
NJEDA paused Aspire in July, calling it an expensive program to run
The company applied to Aspire close to a year ago, WHYY has reported. The company's attorney told the CRDA board on March 17, according to meeting minutes, that the developer had applied for Aspire financing "and would likely be unable to proceed without it."
But NJEDA moved to pause new applications July 22, Chief Executive Officer Evan Weiss saying "as much as half of Aspire credit awards" were going to transaction costs and that demand far exceeds available resources. The program would reopen in the fall with "clearer standards, a stronger emphasis on fiscal discipline and project readiness" among the changes. Under the pause policy, completed applications from non-transformative projects continue through review. The Sheraton file has produced no announced decision and no announced review date; the board approved an Aspire award for a Trenton senior housing project on September 17.
"We believe the project squarely meets the program's requirements and objectives, and we remain hopeful that the tax credits will be awarded and we will be able to complete the financing in time to prevent the hotel closure," the company said in the statement it gave NJ.com.
Scannapieco has said roughly half the $79 million would reach the construction budget. The credits are not cash: developers borrow against them or sell them, and bridge-loan interest, the discount buyers demand and legal and financing costs come out first. NJEDA's own arithmetic agrees: "as much as half of Aspire credit awards" go to transaction costs. The gap matters most for a project whose numbers do not work: "Because when you have a hotel project that doesn't pencil," he told WHYY, "even 50% of that amount — it's the difference between a project that can get done and a project that can't get done."
Scannapieco has said he took the problem to the state first. After his group acquired the hotel's distressed debt in 2020, he urged the CRDA to buy it, he told WHYY — "Look, you guys really should own this hotel," he recalled saying — and the group hired a consultant to make the case. "They didn't want to own it."
Public ownership of convention center hotels is the norm, he has noted — dozens of cities do it, Chicago, Dallas and Denver among them. The message back from the state, as he tells it: "The message to me was very clear: We had to find a solution that did not involve a continuing annual public subsidy, and that's what we did." CRDA spokesperson Michael Chait disputed the account, saying the two sides had talked for years but "CRDA was never approached with any substantive offer to sell the Sheraton."
"It's a shame that it comes down to deadlines and ultimatums," Scannapieco told WHYY. "It's the worst possible way to approach a problem, but we've had four years of conversations, and it's just absolutely clear to us that they want a private-sector solution."
Governor Mikie Sherrill declined to comment on the Sheraton or Scannapieco's request; her spokesperson, Jameel J. Muhammad, said Thursday, "Tourism and hospitality are vital to Atlantic City," and the administration is in touch with stakeholders. On Tuesday, while in Brigantine surveying damage from the weekend's nor'easter, the governor said talks were underway. "The Economic Development Authority is currently in talks with the developers and owners in Atlantic City on what the path forward might be," she said. "I know they're at the table right now. They're discussing the future of the Sheraton."
The CRDA says it "has maintained consistent, direct communication with the Governor's Office throughout this process" and that the administration "remains fully engaged and sharply focused on doing what is right for Atlantic City, Atlantic County, the Atlantic City Convention Center and the tourism industry." Formica said last week the CRDA should be given the power to craft a rescue plan for the hotel, and that executive director Eric Scheffler and chairman Modia Butler had earlier asked the state to let the agency get more directly involved, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson wrote to Sherrill last week. "It is difficult to comprehend how much more difficult it will be to attract visitors and conventions to Atlantic City without a sister hotel." He wrote that the visitor economy "directly supports 30% of Atlantic County's employment" and that visitors expect quality accommodations near their convention space. More disturbing to him: the state found $75 million for the Asbury Park Convention Hall renovation while the Sheraton application waits. The Asbury award came through CAFE, the state's cultural-arts incentive, which is a separate program from Aspire. His larger worry is the Meadowlands: the state, he wrote, "appears to be actively pursuing" a 300,000-square-foot convention facility there. "Imagine the devastation that would result from a new state-funded convention center in the Meadowlands on the Atlantic City convention and hospitality industry." "We don't need to spend our own taxpayers' dollars to create more competition within New Jersey."
Casino and hotel employment hit a nine-year low
Direct casino-hotel employment in Atlantic City fell to 21,172 in April — below even the April 2021 pandemic trough of 21,484, the lowest reading in the Alliance's nine-year data panel, according to the group's July report. The city's unemployment rate averaged 8.6 percent in the first half of 2026, double the national rate, per WHYY.
The report counts 5,105 Atlantic County jobs in exposure by 2035 under its baseline case, rising to 8,005 if North Jersey casino expansion proceeds; a New York City casino market is already assumed in both figures.
NJEDA's board page listed no meetings as of Wednesday; the September 16 meeting minutes have not been posted. The fall reopening of Aspire intake has no date. Many of the staff have been with the property "for more than 20 years," the company said. Ninety-nine workers lose their jobs Thursday. Ninety-one more follow December 15, when the owner says the doors close.
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Sources
• Advance Local Express Desk and Stephanie Loder, "Jersey Shore hotel to cut nearly 100 jobs as senior housing plan moves forward," NJ.com (July 2, 2026).
• Atlantic City Weekly, "CRDA Board Backs Harrah's Regional Conference Center" (2012).
• Atlantic County Economic Alliance, "The Greater Atlantic City Casino-Hotel Employment Exposure Assessment Report" (July 20, 2026).
• Caesars Entertainment Corporation, "Caesars Entertainment Corporation Celebrates the Grand Opening of The Harrah's Resort Atlantic City Waterfront Conference Center" (September 18, 2015).
• Dennis Levinson, Atlantic County Executive, "Letter to Governor Mikie Sherrill" (September 22, 2026; published by the Press of Atlantic City, September 25, 2026).
• Eric Conklin, "$100 million renovation could save this Atlantic City hotel — or it will shut down by year's end," NJ.com (September 16, 2026).
• Eric Conklin, "Sherrill weighs federal aid after nor'easter hits N.J. coast," NJ.com (September 29, 2026).
• Jim Walsh, "Atlantic City hotel to replace guest rooms with senior homes," Courier Post (July 6, 2026).
• Mario Marroquin, "Atlantic City Approves Tax Break for Sheraton Hotel Rehab," Jersey Digs (July 2, 2026).
• New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, Public Meeting Minutes (March 17, 2026).
• New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 2026 WARN Notice Archive (accessed September 30, 2026).
• New Jersey Economic Development Authority, 2026 Board Meeting Minutes (accessed September 30, 2026).
• New Jersey Economic Development Authority, "NJEDA Approves Aspire Program Award to Support Affordable Senior Housing Development in Trenton" (September 17, 2026).
• New Jersey Economic Development Authority, "NJEDA CAFE Program will Support Asbury Park Convention Hall Renovations" (August 24, 2026).
• New Jersey Economic Development Authority, "NJEDA CEO Weiss Statement on Aspire Program" (July 22, 2026).
• New Jersey Economic Development Authority, "Stakeholder Note: Aspire Program Pause" (July 2026).
• Wayne Parry, "Atlantic City Sheraton owners warn hotel may close Dec. 15, pressure NJ to approve aid," Press of Atlantic City (September 14, 2026).
• Wayne Parry, "Formica: Let CRDA try to save Atlantic City Sheraton," Press of Atlantic City (September 22, 2026).
• Wayne Parry, "Sherrill: NJ in talks with Atlantic City Sheraton owners on hotel's future," Press of Atlantic City (September 29, 2026).
• WHYY, "Atlantic City's Sheraton is essential to conventions. So why can't it make money?" (September 29, 2026).
Image: Farragutful / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 — cropped, darkened and overlaid with text.