Atlantic City’s Gardner’s Basin Marina Should Be Booming

Atlantic City New Jersey’s Gardner’s Basin Marina district area should be a flurry of spring and pre-summer activities today.

Instead, it is a construction site at exactly the wrong time of year. All work should have been completed before April 1st, so that the various boating, fishing, lobsterman, parasailing businesses all should be getting ready for their busy season.

It should noted that no construction is taking place at the time that we took these photos on Thursday, April 13, 2023.

We blew the whistle on April Fools Day, 2023 that letters were sent out late and wrong by the Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small administration advising all of the Gardner’s Basin businesses that they could not put their boats in the water until further notice.

The communication was terrible and the City  blindsided everyone.

Atlantic City Cruises was so sure that they would be able to open that their Cruisn 1 boat was already in the water and docked.

The Cruisn 1 vessel has since been moved from Gardner’s Basin.

Fortunately, New Jersey Senator Vince Polistina stepped right up on the day of our public report and immediately reached members of New Jersey Phil Murphy’s staff on a Saturday.

The state of New Jersey has shown a sense of urgency, knowing that these summer activities are coveted by the public and that these varied businesses can really get hurt if they’re not able to earn their fair market share during the busy summer season.

What should be a booming start to the spring season, is instead a fenced-in construction site … see photographs below.

It’s also shocking to see completely empty docks at this time of year … as today’s temperature will be 85 degrees and beyond, (see below).

We interviewed a fisherman this morning who shared his doubts about when the construction work will be completed.

We will continue to keep you posted with all developments regarding the construction work being conducted at Gardner’s Basin.

NOTE: All photographs appearing in this article were taken on Thursday, April 13, 2023.