Carl Icahn is known to blow things up, but not literally. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/carl-icahn-is-exiting-herbalife-and-making-a-killing
The activist investor is not interested in auctioning off the opportunity to demolish Atlantic City’s former Trump Plaza casino, which he owns.
The billionaire’s company has instructed Bodnar’s Auction to cancel the auction, calling it a “spectacle” and a safety risk, according to Bloomberg.
Icahn has agreed to raze the defunct and dilapidated casino, but a spokesperson said, “From the beginning, we thought the auction and any other related spectacle presented a safety risk, and we were always clear that we would not participate in any way.”
Atlantic City, backed by Mayor Marty Small, hatched the idea to put up for bidding the opportunity to detonate explosives that would take down the casino. Small hoped the auction would raise $1 million for the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City.
Icahn said he will donate $175,000 to the nonprofit club to replace the money that might have been raised by the auction.
Small praised Icahn’s pledge and said it “is very important that we maintain a positive relationship with Mr. Icahn because the next conversation we need to have is what should be developed there.”
The demolition was set to occur Jan. 29 but has been pushed back.
Donald Trump opened the Trump Plaza casino in 1984 and at one point owned two other casinos in the city. He had largely divested from them by 2009 and the Trump Plaza itself closed for good in 2014.
[Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch