Bart Blatstein is facing possible foreclosure on his Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. (He’s also looking to expand it.)

ATLANTIC CITY — On a Saturday night in August, Bart Blatstein entered a boxing ring inside the Showboat.

Sporting red boxing gloves, a red top, and black shorts, the 71-year-old real estate developer scored a victory against Steve Schiavoni during a weekend-long USA Boxing sanctioned Masters Championships.

Outside the ring, though, Blatstein’s gloves continue to be up.

Amid his proposals to bring more events to Atlantic City, he and the Showboat, which Blatstein owns and runs as a non-casino hotel, are the defendants in a foreclosure lawsuit filed in N.J. Chancery Court in June.

Underscoring Showboat’s precarious footing, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in September terminated a $4.2 million grant after Blatstein was unable to satisfy liens on the property, an NJEDA spokesperson said.

The lawsuit has not slowed growth plans for the property. Blatstein is seeking approvals to expand the Showboat by erecting a temporary 143,000-square-foot indoor event center across Pacific Avenue from the Showboat’s main parking garage.

At the heart of the foreclosure drama is something of a philosophical question: Is Bart Blatstein’s Showboat half full, or is it half empty?

Is Showboat expanding with new energy and ideas — including dinosaurs, a water park, and an offseason events center?

Or is it teetering precariously on foreclosure’s doorstep?

The foreclosure lawsuit, filed by Computershare Trust Co., contends that Blatstein and Showboat have defaulted on $13.6 million in payments on a $48.5 million mortgage since April 2025.

Blatstein has personally guaranteed the mortgage, according to the suit.

The mortgage was taken out in October 2022 on the 475-room Showboat Hotel, the Lucky Snake Arcade, and the 1,950-space parking garage. (A separate residential tower and the adjacent Island Waterpark, financed separately, are not part of the action.)

The lenders say Showboat also defaulted on the terms of the mortgage by failing to make required room renovations and mold remediation.

The original complaint named five contractors with construction liens against Showboat for unpaid work, which the lawsuit says constituted default under the terms of the mortgage.

The state of New Jersey has filed a lien against the property for $401,768.99 in unpaid taxes, according to documents filed with the lawsuit. Showboat’s New Jersey business registration was suspended in March because it had failed to file annual reports, the lawsuit states.

Computershare Trust Co., which represents investors who hold the commercial mortgage-backed securities debt secured by Showboat, is seeking to “extinguish any interest” Blatstein has in the property and turn over its day-to-day operations to a court-appointed receiver.

In its reply, Showboat said displacing existing management and transferring operations controls would be “one of the most disruptive remedies available in a commercial foreclosure action.”

It said issues over “liens, taxes, insurance, and business-registration matters, have been resolved, substantially addressed, are limited in scope, or remain actively being addressed.”

Issues about mold, Showboat lawyers wrote, were “limited to a valet parking garage and a locked, back-of-house grease collection room, not hotel rooms, restaurants, entertainment venues, or other guest-facing areas of the Property.”

Showboat has challenged the idea that the Showboat property, the collateral on the loan, was in jeopardy.

Showboat, they said, “remains open, operational, insured, actively managed, and subject to ongoing maintenance and regulatory oversight. Hundreds of employees continue to operate the business, guests continue to be served, and the Property continues to function.”

A judge is scheduled to rule Nov. 6 on a motion for summary judgment to foreclose on the property and send it to sheriff’s sale.

Blatstein did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Blatstein has cycled through various ideas at Showboat: a beach club that replaced a demolished former historical museum, an outdoor gym/club that never opened.

The latest Showboat proposal would bring three large tents to the property that would hold sporting events like volleyball tournaments and small conventions.

On Oct. 15, the project had a land use hearing before the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

There was no talk of the financial issues regarding Showboat, but Showboat representatives noted that the land in question had, back in the casino’s heyday, been used for overflow parking, something no longer needed.

“There were times when these parking lots were all full,” said Jon Barnhart, a professional planner working with Showboat on the application.

“We have a very very underutilized block,” he said. “They’re one of the only properties in town that you see trying to do different things, to make things happen.”

Lance Landgraf, director of planning and development for the CRDA, which oversees A.C.’s tourism district, said any building permits would require the property to be paid up on its taxes.

The CRDA also requires proof of ownership by the applicant.

The application will face a vote on Nov. 17, 11 days after a judge is scheduled to rule on the motion to place the Showboat Hotel into immediate foreclosure and send it to a sheriff’s sale.

During his Showboat journey, Blatstein has repeatedly been approved for millions in state loans and tax credits through the state’s Economic Development Authority and CRDA, even as various debts went unpaid.

In June 2025, Blatstein had amassed $7 million in contractor liens related to the water park, prompting a judge to issue an arrest warrant for failing to pay a $500,000 judgment. Blatstein paid.

In 2024, Blatstein was sued by Parker Interior Plantscape, who alleged Blatstein owed $1.7 million for irrigation and landscape work done on the water park. That debt was eventually paid.

In 2019, the CRDA designated the project as retail/entertainment, qualifying it for up to $2.5 million in annual sales tax rebates for 20 years.

In December 2024, Blatstein was approved for a $4.2 million grant from the Atlantic City Revitalization Grant Program to expand family-friendly activities at the Showboat. Among other ideas, he pitched an 11-lane bowling alley.

But the grant was never made.

Chris Flores, spokesperson for the NJEDA, said the grant award required Showboat to satisfy its outstanding liens by Sept. 30, 2026.

“Showboat failed to meet this deadline and the grant was terminated,” Flores said in an email to The Inquirer.

In December 2025, Blatstein’s Island Waterpark, adjacent to Showboat, was awarded a $45.5 million C-PACE loan under New Jersey’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, administered by the NJEDA.

The purpose of the loan was to recapitalize the original construction debt used to build the $100 million water park.

“At the time of the NJEDA’s review of Showboat’s C-PACE application, the company’s prior litigation was resolved or not disqualifying,” Flores said. “There was a pending matter which was not disqualifying due to its pending status.”

Showboat closed on the loan with C-PACE in December 2025, he said.

The flurry of punches, ducks, and weaves in Blatstein’s Atlantic City portfolio has given some observers whiplash.

In a recent social media post, Michael Suleiman, a former Democratic Party head in Atlantic County who is running for New Jersey state Senate, called Blatstein, “Respectfully … a snake oil salesman.”

Suleiman noted Blatstein’s record of obtaining grants and loans and tax breaks while fighting off contractors and lenders who have gone unpaid.

“This begs the question: why developers and corporations like Blatstein who stiff contractors and don’t pay their bills are still awarded grants and loans from the state of New Jersey,” Suleiman said in a recent social media video.

Suleiman described Showboat as “kind of weird, right? It’s part hotel, part abandoned casino, part arcade, part year-round apartments [with] the water park next door.”

Over at Showboat, truly, there is a lot going on.

There’s the state-of-the-art indoor Island Waterpark, the Lucky Snake Arcade, a virtual bowling alley, life-size hyperrealistic art by Seward Johnson, an indoor race track, roller rink, and miniature golf course. There’s an outdoor dinosaur park where multiple prehistoric facsimiles were felled in the recent nor’easter. There’s even a giant Hungry Hungry Hippos game.

And soon, there might be an offseason tented event center.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. dismissed concern over any pending foreclosure at Showboat.

“I’m a big believer in Bart Blatstein,” Small said in a phone interview. “I know he loves Atlantic City and we love him.”