Working with the Trump Organization on its Atlantic City resorts and casinos, Allen was involved with developing the Taj Mahal and watched the project’s cost balloon to nearly $1 billion as it prepared to open in early 1990. In spite of an offer from Hilton, Allen opted to stay on as part of the team for the better part of the next decade. Because Trump had no experience in the casino industry at the time, Allen and several other team members remained onboard to help with the transition and opened the property as Trump's Castle Hotel Casino. Before the Atlantic City Hilton Hotel could open, however, Donald Trump made a foray into the city’s tourism sector by acquiring the under-development property for $325 million. By 1985, he was working with Hilton on a project in Atlantic City-the most expensive casino the city had ever seen, he recalled. While he never wound up getting a degree, his education and determination pushed him up the ladder.

“Every course I took-I even went to dealer school-was always related to the industry or my job,” he said. At the same time, he was studying at various colleges, learning as much as he could about the industry, from hotel management to gaming and casino management, antitrust and Uniform Commercial Code and even creative writing to make sure his memos were effective. He took on two or three jobs at a time to keep the family afloat, eventually founding his own catering business and saving up enough to buy some real estate. “No house, no insurance and a pile of bills this high,” he said.

Indeed, witness the early death of his father, when Allen’s family had no money to pay for a coffin. “To me, that was a way to potentially obtain things that, unfortunately, my parents couldn't afford.” As a young man, Allen was attracted to the quality of the owner’s life and saw the industry as a ladder up. “The owner of the restaurant was very, very successful,” he recalled.

Not only did Allen grow up near the iconic New Jersey beachfront city, but he played a major role in opening the property that used to occupy the space: the former Trump Taj Mahal resort and casino.Īllen was introduced to hospitality through a teenage job, helping out a small restaurant on the outskirts of Atlantic City. The opening of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, N.J., in June marked a homecoming of sorts for James Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International.

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