GDC GAMING REPORTS: Three years to the day after Atlantic City’s $2.4 billion Revel casino opened – and seven months to the day after it closed – a bankruptcy court judge approved its sale to a Florida developer for about 4 cents on the dollar.
Judge Gloria Burns approved the deal, which did not address the rights of former business tenants at the casino to operate there when it reopens. Thursday’s approval came after Glenn Straub’s Polo North Country Club agreed to drop its demand that the sale go through “free and clear of encumbrances” like the tenants’ leases – an issue that had helped scuttle several prior attempts to sell the casino. Burns said the issue of whether tenants can remain there should be worked out with Straub outside of bankruptcy court…
Thursday’s approval came on the fifth attempt to sell Revel, and it came despite last-minute entreaties from would-be bidders for more time to put together a better deal than Straub’s. They included a group led by Howard Milstein of New York and Carl Goldberg of New Jersey that offered $88 million, but acknowledged they were unable to reach a deal for energy services with the power plant that is Revel’s sole source of heat, air conditioning, water and electricity. The judge and attorneys for Straub, Revel and lender Wells Fargo had little patience for such requests… (more)
