Hopes To Pay Down A Portion Of $437 Million Debt

City Commissioners in cash-strapped Atlantic City, NJ last week voted to put Bader Field, an airport closed in 2006, up for auction.

The Associated Press reports that the opening bid for the property will be $155 million when it goes on the block June 17. The proceeds will go towards paying down the city's debt, currently estimated at $437 million.

This is not the first time the city has entertained offers for the property. In 2008, Atlantic City was asking $1.5 billion for the land. It rejected an $800 million offer from a Pennsylvania-based casino developer.

The airport has a rich history ... including being the first facility to be termed an "airport" by a local reporter in a newspaper article in 1919. In 1910, the airport was the departure point for the first attempted crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by air ... just seven years after the Wright Brothers first flew. That attempt was by the dirigible "America", which encountered as storm and was forced to ditch off Cape Hatteras, NC.

Bader Field is also where the Civil Air Patrol was founded in 1941.

Sale of the airport and other cost-saving measures have been called "too little too late" by Governor Chris Christie and other state lawmakers. The Press of Atlantic City reports that the state Senate has approved a bailout package for the city that would give the state unprecedented control over the city's budget for five years. Gov. Christie had vetoed such measures in the past, but now supports the idea. The Senate bill for Atlantic City must still be approved by the State Assembly.

None of that seems to have any bearing on whether Bader Field will be sold, and the historic airport property may soon be on its way to becoming the site of another shopping mall or Atlantic City casino.

(Image: 1995 USGS topo map showing Bader Field)

FMI: www.cityofatlanticcity.org