6A ❚ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 ❚ ASBURY PARK PRESS e

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ATLANTIC CITY – Eldorado Resorts was giventemporary approval to own Atlantic City’s Tropicanacasino, expressing optimism about a growing marketrather than nervousness over increasing competi-tion.

The Reno, Nevada-based company is taking overthe Atlantic City property as part of a $1.85 billion ac-quisition of Tropicana Entertainment.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commissiongranted interim authority to the company onWednesday to own the casino. The agency still mustapprove a full casino license for Eldorado.

The sale of seven Tropicana Entertainment casi-nos in six states is expected to close early in thefourth quarter of this year. Billionaire investor CarlIcahn agreed to the sale to the Reno, Nevada-basedEldorado in April.

The Tropicana has improved its nancial perfor-mance to claim the No. 2 spot in Atlantic City in termsof annual gambling revenue as of the end of last year,trailing only the Borgata.

“We’re coming in eyes wide open that we’re goingto have to ght for our position in this market,” saidThomas Reeg, the company’s president. “We expecta ght for market share and we’re prepared to get in-volved. We’re buying an asset that we hope is stand-ing and competing 50, 100 years from now.”

The agreement includes the sale of Tropicana En-tertainment Inc.’s real estate to Gaming and LeisureProperties Inc. It doesn’t include Tropicana’s Arubaassets, which will be disposed of as a condition toclosing.

Icahn Enterprises initially bought a stake in Trop-icana in 2008.

Eldorado Resorts is acquiring the operating assetsof seven casinos in six states, including two in Neva-

Eldorado getstemporary OK toown Tropicana Wayne Parry ASSOCIATED PRESS

See TROPICANA, Page 7A

HOWELL – Barnes & Noble has decided to not re-new the lease for its store on Route 9 in Howell.

The 24,630-square-foot store, located at LanesMill Marketplace, is up for lease, said Chuck Lanyard,president of The Goldstein Group, a Paramus-basedcommercial real estate brokerage. Barnes & Noble’slease for the space is up by the end of the year, hesaid.

“The store is available,” Lanyard said. “Barnes &Noble has elected to not renew their lease at this lo-cation.”

No information on the timing of when Barnes &Noble will close the store was available on Wednes-day. Barnes & Noble has not commented on the realestate listing or why it plans to leave the Howell store.

Barnes & Noble is the second big retailer to makeplans to leave Howell in the past month.

In August, Best Buy said it would close its Howellstore in November. Ruby Tuesday’s also abruptlyclosed its Route 9 restaurant at the end of August.

Other retailers, including Aldi and ClimbZone,have made moves to open new locations.

Lanes Mills Marketplace is anchored by Targetand Lowe’s. Other stores there include Stop & Shopand Five Below.

Lanyard said other retailers have expressed an in-terest in Barnes & Noble’s location at the large shop-ping center.

“The activity has been very strong for replacementtenants,” Lanyard said. “There’s been some reallygood interest in other retailers taking over the space.”

Barnes & Noble has a store about nine miles awayin Brick at Brick Plaza and nearly 11 miles away onRoute 9 in Freehold Township. Other stores are locat-ed in Eatontown at Monmouth Mall and on Route 35

Howell willlose Barnes& Noble store

What’s Going There?David P. Willis

Asbury Park Press

USA TODAY NETWORK – N.J.

Barnes & Noble is on Route 9 in Howell. DAVID P. WILLIS

See HOWELL, Page 7A

ALLENHURST – After growing up in Indiana,where he graduated from Franklin College with a de-gree in sociology and business, Chris Verdi’s dreamstook him to the Great White Way.

But even as an actor in New York City who per-formed in movies and o-Broadway plays, his athlet-ic past as a soccer player during his high school andcollege years came back to haunt him.

“I’d had back fusion surgery at 19 and it left mecrooked and bent over time,” said the 49-year-old As-bury Park resident, who suered from sciatica for thenext 17 years. “While I was acting, I was waiting ta-bles and cleaning houses on the side and my backwas getting worse and worse.”

And even when he ultimately abandoned acting tobecome a certied personal trainer, “the exercisehurt more than helped,” he said.

All of that changed in the early 2000s, however,when Verdi saw a demonstration of Muscle Activa-tion Techniques (MAT), a unique approach to assess-ing and correcting the muscular system developed byMAT founder Greg Roskopf.

“It was the opposite of everything I’d been trainedabout health and muscles and it provided relief andhope,” he said. “I knew right then that it was the way Iwould go.”

With money he inherited from his grandmother,Verdi pursued MAT training in Denver and got certi-ed as a MAT specialist in 2007, launching his studio,Core Restore, in Asbury Park that year.

He was certied as a master in the practice in 2015and in 2017 became New Jersey’s only Certied Mas-ter Specialist in MATRx, the elite next-generation ofthe practice (and one of only 68 Certied Master Spe-cialists nationwide).

“MAT has helped me so much,” Verdi said of theimpact the approach had on his back, life and health.“I’ve gained muscle, it’s completely changed mybody’s response to stress, and I’m in much bettershape overall.”

Stabilizing muscle systems

At his cozy 600 square-foot Allenhurst studio,which he moved to in 2014 and where he currentlyserves dozens of clients, “I look at the contractile e-ciency of muscles, identify weak links in my clients’muscular systems, and reactivate their ability to con-tract,” said Verdi.

He said that people can develop these weaknesses— reected by such symptoms as tightness and pain— as a function of improper movement, poor postureand other bad habits, and the aging process.

“We work to stabilize the muscle system to buildtrue strength and better handle the shock and stressof daily living,” he said.

Clients begin their Core Restore journey with afree consultation, during which Verdi listens to theissues they’re struggling with and shares the MATphilosophy.

“MAT isn’t for everybody, but if you’re committedto the process, you’ll get better,” Verdi said of the one-on-one, hour-long MAT sessions, which are priced at$175.

“We nd weaknesses by conducting muscle testingand assessing dierent movements and range-of-mo-tion issues, reactivate weak muscles by manuallystimulating muscle insertion points, and then retestmuscles to verify that the brain-muscle connectionsare strong,” Verdi said. “It’s like a rebooting of the com-puter — using MAT, we’re reconnecting the wires andreactivating muscle bers so they can contract.”

Among trends, Verdi conrmed that chaos reigns inthe tness industry. “From a customer’s perspective,there’s a lot of confusion surrounding what to do andwhat not to do and a lot of dierent providers,” he said.“In the end, a lot of people are desperate for help be-cause the techniques being oered out there don’t al-ways address their issues.”

Such was the situation for Colts Neck resident J.P.Albano, a 37-year-old multifamily real estate develop-er who learned of Core Restore through another well-ness provider in 2015.

“I’d injured my elbow through workouts and,though I tried everything, including ultrasound andActive Release Techniques (ART), I hit a wall with myrehab,” Albano said.

After a two-hour assessment at Core Restore, how-ever, “Chris identied seven areas of weaknessthroughout my body that were contributing to my el-bow issues and after three MAT sessions I noticed adenite dierence and felt better.” he said. “He isolatesmuscles he’s working on by applying pressure to mus-cle insertion points, which creates near-instanta-neous relief, and since then my whole body feels betterand all of my muscles are functioning properly.”

Chris Verdi, owner of Core Restore in Allenhurst, performs Muscle Activation Techniques on client JenniferCrews on Monday. PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT/CORRESPONDENT

From Broadway to muscle maven Chris Verdi improves clients’ lives at Core RestoreSusan Bloom Special to Asbury Park PressUSA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY

Chris Verdi works on on client Jennifer CrewsMonday. Verdi received MAT training in Denver andlaunched Core Restore in 2007. He was certied as amaster in the practice in 2015.

See CORE RESTORE, Page 7A

Core RestoreLocation: 560 Main St., Allenhurst

Phone: 732-502-0100

Founded: 2007

Owner: Chris Verdi

Website: www.core-restore.com

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“It soundedlike a goodidea atthe time!”

Today, Albano continues to visit CoreRestore every few weeks for “tune-ups”and said that not only has his wholephysiological health improved but thathe recovers from workouts faster. “Chrisis very knowledgeable and passionateabout what he does and I’m so glad hestarted his studio,” he said. “Clientshave to put in the work, but they’ll seeimprovements in a short period of time.”

Out-of-the-box approach

Though Verdi acknowledged that itcan be hard to get people to embraceand commit to MAT because it’s such anout-of-the-box approach that most areunfamiliar with, “I’m truly passionateabout it because it works,” he said.

Supported by two helpers at the stu-dio as well as his husband Bill, Verdi isexcited to take Core Restore to the nextlevel.

“I recently patented my own move-ment training system on a specially de-

signed apparatus called the ‘Core Re-store Training System’ and I’m thrilledto be able to oer hour-long sessionson the CRTS for $75 starting this Octo-ber,” he said.

During those sessions, “we teachbody awareness through muscle con-traction and have specic exercises forthe upper and lower body, hands andfeet, posture and much more. Theseworkouts holistically prepare peoplefor movement and exercise and aregreat for anyone who loves to exerciseand wants longevity in sports and lifeas well as those who haven’t found re-lief for their issues elsewhere.”

As he continues to expand his net-work of clients and fellow wellnessproviders, Verdi takes pride in the pos-itive eect his MAT approach is havingon lives throughout the Shore.

“It makes me feel good to help peo-ple through something I started fromscratch,” he said. “Problems create op-portunities, and my own injuries andsituation made me more empatheticand humbler. I feel privileged to havesuch great clients, and I’m excited tohelp more and more people experiencethis level of wellness.”

Chris Verdi, owner of Core Restore in Allenhurst, performs Muscle ActivationTechniques on client Jennifer Crews on Monday. JEFF GRANIT/CORRESPONDENT

Core RestoreContinued from Page 6A

da — the Tropicana Laughlin Hotel andCasino and the MontBleu Casino Re-sort & Spa in South Lake Tahoe — aswell as casinos in Indiana (TropicanaEvansville); Louisiana (Belle of BatonRouge Casino & Hotel); Mississippi(Trop Casino Greenville); Missouri (Lu-mière Place); and New Jersey (Tropica-na Casino and Resort, Atlantic City).

The company is taking over Tropi-cana as the Atlantic City casino marketis expanding again. Two of the ve ca-sinos that shut down since 2014 re-opened in June under new ownership:Hard Rock and the Ocean Resort Casi-no.

“We’re not new to competition,” Ca-rano said. “Reno is as much if not morecompetitive. We will be able to com-pete favorably; we have in every marketwe’ve been in.”

Eldorado ocials noted that Icahn

had reinvested heavily into the Tropica-na, describing it as being in good phys-ical condition. Tropicana plans to add anew sports betting facility by October tojoin New Jersey’s burgeoning market.

“We’re very excited to be here and op-erate in Atlantic City,” Carano said. “At-lantic City is on a roll, and we’re on theupside of that roll.”

TropicanaContinued from Page 6A

A dealer waits for customers at a cashwheel game at the Tropicana Casinoand Resort in Atlantic City in this 2015le photo. ASSOCIATED PRESS

in Holmdel.Have you seen a construction pro-

ject in Monmouth or Ocean countiesand wanted to know what is going

there? Contact business writer David P.Willis at dwillis@gannettnj.com, andwe will look into it for a future column.Meanwhile, join the What’s Going Theregroup on Facebook and stay in touchwith the latest developments.

David P. Willis: 732-643-4039; Twit-ter, dpwillis732; Facebook: dpwillis732;dwillis@gannettnj.com.

HowellContinued from Page 6A

Special interest spending fueled bypro-Democratic unions continues toow largely unchecked in New Jersey,according to a new analysis that showsthe top 25 “pressure” groups spent morethan $74 million last year trying to inu-ence elections and policy.

The analysis released Wednesdaymorning by the Election Law Enforce-ment Commission highlights the shiftaway from traditional spending in NewJersey to the more loosely regulatedworld of campaign nance that allowspublic contractors to skirt the state’spay-to-play laws.

Moreover, the nance watchdog’sndings draw attention to the consis-tent lack of action by lawmakers tostrengthen transparency in lobbyingand elections despite repeated eortsby the commission to do so.

With more than 628,000 members,New Jersey has one of the highest con-centrations of union membership in thecountry. And Democrats, who have con-trolled the Legislature since 2001 andnow lead the executive branch underGov. Phil Murphy, received $15.8 millionfrom union-led political action commit-tees, or PACs, last year, according to thecommission.

That made up a bulk of the $20.3 mil-lion Democrats received from PACs, ac-

cording to the commission. By contrast,the commission said Republicans re-ceived $1.2 million last year from union-led PACs.

Labor unions have traditionally usedPACs as their main source of politicalspending, and they are subject tospending caps and quarterly disclosurereports.

But special interest spendingthrough virtually unregulated indepen-dent groups has become the “preferredweapon” of seeking inuence, said JeBrindle, executive director of the com-mission. The $41.4 million in indepen-

dent spending by the top 25 special in-terest groups last year well exceeded the$28.9 million spent by PACs on stateand local elections, according to thecommission.

The $74 million in total special inter-est spending last year — combiningelection contributions, lobbying and in-dependent spending — was 34 percentmore than the $55 million spent in theprevious gubernatorial and legislativeelection in 2013, according to the analy-sis.

“This is more reason why the Legisla-ture needs to enact ELEC-recommend-

ed legislation that would require inde-pendent groups to fully disclose theircampaign nances while also seeking tostrengthen political parties and greatlysimplify pay-to-play rules,” Brindle saidin a statement. “Pay-to-play reformwould sharply reduce the amount pub-lic contractors could give to PACs.”

The leading special interest last year,as it was in 2013, was the New JerseyEducation Association. It serves as anexample of the shift in spending meth-ods over the past decade.

The association, which is the state’slargest teacher’s union, contributed$8.5 million through independentspending last year compared to$951,000 in political contributions and$512,000 in lobbying, according to theanalysis.

The next three top special interestgroups — which are tied to Murphy andSenate President Stephen Sweeney —spent about $20 million through inde-pendent spending and none on candi-date contributions or lobbying, accord-ing to the analysis.

Those groups — General MajorityPAC, New Jerseyans for a Better Tom-morrow and the Committee to Build theEconomy — are known as 527 politicalcommittees, which are tax-exempt andcan accept unlimited amounts of mon-ey. Although they are not required bystate law to disclose donors, those threegroups have.

Special interest money hits new high in NJ

Phil Murphy casts his ballot on Election Day along with his son, Sam. BOB KARP/USA TODAY NETWORK

Dustin Racioppi Trenton BureauUSA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY