Revel Casino Hotel To Get New Owner If Court Approves $8 Million Discount

The Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City cost approximately $2.4 billion dollars and went live in April 2012. The casino owners believed that the new casino would provided a much needed boost to Atlantic City’s declining casino industry and expected the Revel to be one of the biggest players in the New Jersey market.

That did not happen and the casino was unable to make a profit and found it extremely difficult to manage operations with limited cashflow. The sluggish Atlantic City market did not provide much hope to the casino owners and they filed for bankruptcy twice and eventually shutdown the casino in September 2015.

The Revel was one among the four casinos that shutdown in Atlantic City during 2014. State officials and casino owners have been looking to sell these properties but have faced a number of challenges in finding buyers. The Revel was initially sold at an auction to Brookfield Asset Management, a company based in Toronto, Canada for $110 million but the deal did not go through successfully as the buyer was unable to settle a debt dispute due to Rebel’s expensive power plant.

The casino was then purchased for $95.4 million by Glenn Straub at an auction after he put up his Polo North Country Club. However, this deal could also fall through as Straub’s lawyers have filed a complaint in Atlantic City for an $8 million dollar discount saying that the auction was not conducted fairly as his side was unaware of the other bidder. Straub’s lawyers say that if Straub’s team was aware of the “significant and numerous improprieties” during the auction they would never had bid more than $90 million.

Straub plans to develop the Revel casino and turn it into a genius academy where it would serve as a meeting place for some of the best minds in the world. Straub wants to encourage and fund an academy where geniuses can share ideas, creativity and solutions to the society’s biggest challenges.

Judge Gloria Burns was also petitioned by Straub’s lawyers to deduct $3 million which is the breakup fee that Straub was promised. Straub does not want to pay this amount as Revel is still holding on to the $11 million deposit that was paid by Brookfield Asset Management. The petition urged Judge Burns to put the Revel casino up for auction again if it was determined that

the auction process was deficient to the extent the auction significantly and adversely affected