Sands Atlantic City was a casino and hotel that operated from August 13, 1980 until November 11, 2006 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was formerly known as the Brighton Hotel & Casino.
- Venue
- Sands Atlantic City
- Town
- New Jersey, US
Sands Atlantic City was a casino and hotel that operated from August 13, 1980 until November 11, 2006 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was formerly known as the Brighton Hotel & Casino. It consisted of a 21-story hotel tower with 532 rooms and a 5-story podium housing the 57,045 sq ft (5,299.7 m2) casino, restaurants, shops, and various other amenities. It was adjacent to The Claridge Hotel and its parking garage was adjacent to the Madison Hotel. The first Brighton Hotel (originally named the Brighton Cottage) was opened in 1876 on the site that would eventually become the Sands. It was demolished in 1959. The Brighton Hotel & Casino was built at a cost of $70 million by Greate Bay Casino Corporation, controlled by two local businessmen, Eugene Gatti and Arthur Kania. It opened on August 13, 1980. The Brighton was the fourth property to open following the 1977 legalization of casinos in Atlantic City, and the first to be built from the ground up, rather than as a renovation of an existing hotel. The developers hoped that the Brighton's quiet atmosphere and small size, about half that of the city's other casino hotels, would prove attractive to high rollers. Early marketing featured Bert Parks as a spokesman, and the slogan "Brighton Up". After less than a month in operation, Holiday Inns agreed to buy the Brighton for $121 million in cash and stock plus assumption of the property's $37 million mortgage. Holiday Inns pulled out of the deal a month later. As the Brighton headed into its first winter, the city's low season, it faced severe cash flow problems, with lower monthly revenue than all its competitors. The Brighton was rescued in the first months of 1981 by $10 million in financing from Inns of the Americas (a Dallas-based hotel operator, owned by the Pratt brothers) and financiers Burton and Richard Koffman. Inns of the Americas and the Koffmans went on to buy a 60 percent interest in the Brighton from Gatti and Kania for $30 million in May 1981. Inns of the