Atlantic City Bader Field Plan Redevelopment With Motor Club Community Gets Green Flag

Posted on: July 21, 2025, 12:10h. 

Last updated on: July 21, 2025, 09:48h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • A redevelopment plan for Bader Field has been approved by the Atlantic City Council
  • Bader Field, the city’s former municipal airport, has sat closed since 2006
  • The city-approved proposal includes a luxury motorsport community

The Atlantic City Council has voted in favor of a multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the long-shuttered Bader Field airport that includes a 2.44-mile Formula One-graded racetrack weaving in and around 4,000 luxury residences, retail shops, and restaurants in a so-called “motorsport living, entertainment, and lifestyle hub.”

Atlantic City airport Renaissance motorsport
A rendering of Renaissance at Bader Field. The Atlantic City Council has voted in favor of allowing the motorsport-focused mixed-use community plan for the former airport property to move forward. (Image: DEEM Enterprises)

The City Council vote was unanimous in favor of recommending that the project move to the state-led Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) for review. The CRDA is funded by the nine casinos through gaming, parking, and hotel allocations. The agency leverages its assets and revenues with private investment capital to support redevelopment projects within Atlantic City.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr., who sits on the council and is a CRDA board member, said the $3.4 billion initiative is “a game changer.” The project, called Renaissance at Bader Field, is led by a group of four partners operating as DEEM Enterprises, LLC. The principals include CEO Erick Feitshans, COO Mike Binder, CMO Eric Harryman, and CLO Daniel Gallagher.

Unique Proposal

Bader Field has sat shuttered since September 2006, when the city-owned municipal airport was replaced by the larger Atlantic City International Airport. Numerous redevelopment proposals have been pitched for the 143-acre property located in the Chelsea Heights neighborhood west of Absecon Island and the Intracoastal Waterway.

DEEM’s vision is perhaps the most unique. Designed for motorsport enthusiasts, the mixed-use development, along with the racetrack and drive-in residencies, is to include luxury retail, fine dining, a live entertainment venue, a boutique hotel, a nature walk, an intercoastal marina, and a museum.

[Renaissance] offers automotive enthusiasts a rare opportunity to experience their cars on a safe, professional road course, displayed in their homes and shared as a lifestyle. Drawing upon scores of enthusiastic fans in New Jersey and across the globe, Renaissance will provide state-of-the-art facilities that spur a new, exciting level of commerce through iGaming, sporting events, concerts, and motion picture entertainment,” the Renaissance website reads.

Smalls, who, along with his wife, Dr. La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools, continues to face felony endangerment charges related to the alleged abuse of his teenage daughter, is of the impression that DEEM has the funding in place to bring the ambitious plan to fruition.

“We’re more confident than ever,” Smalls declared. 

Next Steps

The Atlantic City Council’s vote on the Renaissance plan enters into a memorandum of understanding that if the state signs off on the development, as needed because the state continues to oversee the Atlantic City government, DEEM would pay the city $100 million for Bader Field and contribute another $15 million to a recreational and community center somewhere in the city.

In January, DEEM officials said they had funding in place for the first phase of the development, which would include the racetrack and the largest residences, that would cost $750 million to $800 million. 

Showboat owner Bart Blatstein, who pitched a $3 billion redevelopment of Bader Field in 2022 with Post Brothers, a nationally known residential builder, raised concerns in 2023 after his plan was passed over that Small and the City Council didn’t conduct a proper competitive bid. Blatstein encouraged state officials to reject the Renaissance scheme.

“Respectfully, this lack of transparency and competitive bidding process certainly is not reflective of the highest standards for openness and public credibility that Gov. Phil Murphy has to his great credit set for his administration,” Blatstein said at the time.