By Chuck Darrow
It would be almost criminally negligent if we allowed the 20th anniversary of one of Atlantic City’s most significant casino-era landmarks to pass without mention.
In November, 2004, the ribbon was cut at The Quarter—the Havana-in-the-1950s-themed retail, dining and entertainment complex that is part of Tropicana Atlantic City. Since then, the bi-level mall has hosted what is easily millions of visitors, and it remains a locally unparalleled attraction boasting ultra-popular restaurants and nightclubs, a wide variety of retail outlets and even an “escape room” and the Shore’s only IMAX Theater.
The Quarter was the brainchild of the late Dennis Gomes, who was the Trop’s President and CEO at the turn of the 21st century, and whom one of his top executives rightfully described as a “visionary” during a recent interview.
The idea, explained Sherry Amos, was first broached in the 1990s, and was inspired by the success of the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which was the gaming industry’s first large-scale development designed with non-gambling revenue in mind.
“It was such a popular attraction; it offered a lot of the non-gaming amenities–food and beverage, shopping and entertainment options–and that’s how the concept [was hatched] to bring that type of an entertainment center to Atlantic City.”
Amos, who today is the vice-president of marketing for Spectrum Gaming, a leading industry consulting firm, had a unique view of the planning, construction and opening of The Quarter: As the casino’s marketing veep, she was Gomes’ point person on the project and was involved on a daily basis in multiple facets of its creation, from construction and publicity to tenant acquisition and dealing with the various governmental bureaucracies that oversaw permits and other legalities.
As for The Quarter’s theme–Havana’s wild-and-wooly 1950s scene before Fidel Castro came to power and shut down the glamorous (and gangster-run) casinos there–Amos suggested it wasn’t too difficult to land on that motif given the property is called “Tropicana.”
Had the original opening target date been met, this article would have run months earlier. But fate intervened in a horrific way on Oct. 30, 2003, when several floors of the project’s under-construction, 12-story parking garage “pancaked,” killing four construction workers and injuring 20 others.
“I was in a meeting on the fifth-floor executive conference room, and we all heard a loud bang,” recalled Amos. “It was like ‘Boom!’ And then several loud booms after that.
“And we just all looked at each other like, ‘What’s going on?’ So we ran outside, and it was just people running around, construction workers running around.”
Making the situation worse for Amos was that her younger brother, Harry, was on the construction crew that day. Thankfully, he was working on the hotel tower and wasn’t caught in the collapse.
“It was just chaos; people were running around, people were crying, people were screaming,” she said. “And I just remember running around the block trying to find my brother. There were hundreds of construction workers just standing on the side of the construction site.
“I remember coming around on Pacific Avenue and I saw him and he saw me, and we just embraced. We still talk about it to this day. It was such an awful thing. It was heart-wrenching, just an awful, awful tragedy.”
According to Amos, whose Tropicana career began in 1981 when she was hired to perform as a baton twirler in a production show called “Monte Carlo Carnival,” construction on The Quarter (and the Havana Tower hotel that was part of the project) had advanced beyond the point of no return as it were, meaning it was too late to cancel the remaining construction in the wake of the garage collapse. She credits Gomes, who died in 2012 of kidney-related issues, with having the vision and calming personality to shepherd his crew through and past the accident.
“He knew what his role was as a leader at that time, and it’s not really anything you could ever rehearse,” she said. “It has to be built into your personality. Your leadership qualities just come out there.
“He handled it miraculously–as well as it could be handled. But it was hard. Dennis was a very caring, loving person; his whole way of managing his employees was that if you treat them with dignity and respect and appreciate what they do, they’re going to work hard for you.
“So when this happened, it broke his heart. But he had to take the role of leadership at that point.”
But happier days ultimately returned; the Quarter welcomed the public on Nov. 23, 2004—exactly 23 years to the day that Tropicana itself opened. Perhaps the greatest testament to the concept—and to its ongoing success—is the number of original tenants still doing business there. They include such restaurants as P.F. Chang’s, Carmine’s, The Palm and Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar, as well as the Imax Theater and The Hat Emporium.
Although she seldom gets to the Trop these days, Amos acknowledged the sense of pride she feels whenever she visits. And she had these words for the property’s current owner, Caesars Entertainment and any future proprietors:
“Please take care of The Quarter. Keep it nice, because maintenance is important,” she said.
“Keep its image and keep it safe and keep it entertaining. And keep it up to date, because trends change and it’s something that, by taking care of it, can always continue to bring people to the Tropicana and into Atlantic City.”
