Lucy the Elephant to Undergo Renovations

To Richard Helfand right now, because we're talking about Lucy the Elephant is getting a lot of new improvements to the Visitor's Center. Thanks for joining us, Richard. Oh, it's a pleasure. Lucy loves being on Fox Philadelphia. And we love Lucy. So tell us a little bit about the $5.4 million tax credit for the Visitor's Center. So it's a it's a tax credit program that we applied for 17 months ago. It's being offered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, their CAFE program, which stands for Cultural Arts Facilities Expansion. And it was an arduous 17 months getting to this point, but we finally reached the finish line two weeks ago. And they've awarded us a $5.4 million tax credit program. So now we can finally finish the Visitor Center project, which has really been on the books since 2003. I mean, how great is it to receive all this money? I mean, everybody loves Lucy the Elephant, right? It's just such a staple. It's, um, it's... It's a huge relief for us, because as I said, we've been working on this project since 2003, many, many iterations of the plan, but now we're finally at the finish line, and we're hoping to break ground in April on a new visitor center, which will include an enlarged retail space. ABA-compliant restrooms and an interpretive center so that people who can't climb Lucy's stairs will be able to do virtual tours in this multipurpose center. And in addition to those in the new building, we're also going to be doing restoration to the interior of the elephant. If you recall, several years ago, we replaced all of our exterior metal, and now we have to focus on the interior, which will include refinishing the plaster walls. Refinishing the the wooden floors and the big thing is replacing her air conditioning and heating system, which is 55 years old So it's long overdue You're also going to be speaking. Yeah, and you know talk about how this is really just an all-hands-on-deck project right I mean you guys have a lot of help, you know helping to restore this and again, it's just such a landmark in the community Lucy is important. I mean, she's a part of our history. She is actually the number one non-gaming attraction that people inquire about when they come to visit Atlantic City. And, you know, to the visitor, even though we're in Margate. To the visitor, it's all part of Atlantic City. We're all part of that greater Atlantic City experience. And Lucy's history is so vital to South Jersey. I mean, she was part of the development of the Jersey Shore. She was the catalyst that caused the Camden Atlantic Railroad to extend the trolley track down beach back in the early 1900s. So Lucy's history is very, very important. Yeah, and Lucy is what, the last of three elephant-shaped buildings designed, right? That's true. James Lafferty, who was a Philadelphia guy, came up with the idea of building this animal, this elephant shaped building fashioned after P.T. Barnum's Jumbo, which was a famous circus elephant back in the day. And he created Lucy as a gimmick to bring curiosity seekers down from this brand new seaside resort called Atlantic City and hope to be able to use Lucy as the draw to sell his real estate holdings. Actually applied to the U.S. Patent Office in 1882. To get a patent on all animal shaped buildings. And then he built a larger one. Lucy is six stories tall. He built a larger one in Coney Island. That's called Elephantine Colossus. It's 12 stories tall. That burned down in 1896. And then he licensed someone to build a smaller one. In the very southern tip of Cape May. Which fell down in 1900. Ah, just so many facts. I mean, just so many things that people don't even know about Lucy. Anything else that you want to share with us, you know, about this project, about some of the new improvements and also just the importance of making it, you know, accessible for those with disabilities? The big thing for us is once the building is built, we'll be able to much more aggressively market her to schools. I mean, as I've mentioned, she's such a part of our history that it's important we go out into the schools in New Jersey and the Delaware Valley and even in New York and in Delaware to teach the kids in third and fourth grade about the importance of Lucy and her role in the development of the Jersey Shore. Once we have the ADA-compliant restrooms, that's it. That will enable us to go out to the schools and market her more aggressively, bringing kids to the site. 100%. Well, we love all the improvements. We can't wait to see, you know, the final product. Thank you so much, Richard, for hanging out with us today. We appreciate it. Thank you so much and have a great holiday season. Thank you. Thank you. Same to you.