\nWayne Parry, Associated Press \u00b7<\/p>\n
\tATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Revel, the billion-dollar resort bust that was once widely viewed as the potential savior of Atlantic City\u2019s struggling casino industry, is getting a second chance as part of a Florida developer\u2019s ambitious plan to remake the East Coast gambling resort into a destination for bettors and tourists alike.<\/p>\n
\tRevel\u2019s sale to Glenn Straub\u2019s Polo North Country Club was completed Tuesday after a complicated and torturous effort to find a new owner for the shuttered casino. His lawyer, Craig Galle, told The Associated Press the deal closed shortly after noon.<\/p>\n
\tStraub paid $82 million for the casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build and operated for just over two years without ever turning a profit.<\/p>\n
\tThe deal was finalized after four prior attempts to sell it fell through. Straub paid about 4 cents on the dollar for the casino; it was one of four of the city\u2019s 12 casinos to go out of business last year, eliminating a combined 8,000 jobs.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI always believed it was going to sell, and I was 75 percent sure it was going to be to us,\u201d said attorney Stuart Moskovitz, who represented Straub as he pursued the casino in bankruptcy court. \u201cSometimes we were more optimistic than others. But it worked out in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStraub last week unveiled an ambitious plan to spend $500 million on numerous projects in Atlantic City over the next three years. Dubbed \u201cProject Phoenix,\u201d it includes the purchase of the Showboat, another shuttered casino next door to Revel that he bought on Friday and plans to lease to Stockton University as a satellite campus once legal complications regarding the property are resolved.<\/p>\n
\tHe also plans to develop the former Bader Field airport site, which closed in 2006, and re-open part of it as an aviation facility. His plans for the site also include an extreme sports complex, two marinas, a world-class equestrian complex, waterparks, universities and high-speed ferries and helicopter service connecting to Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\tHis attorneys said Straub, who did not return a call seeking comment, has not yet decided what to call the property, which he is trying to reopen at least part of for this summer.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOne thing I can guarantee you is it won\u2019t be \u2018Revel,’\u201d Moskovitz said.<\/p>\n
\tStraub also has not finalized plans for the property. He has floated a wide variety of proposed uses for the property, including a scaled-down casino; a water park; a hotel; condominiums; a health-themed spa, and an equestrian facility.<\/p>\n
\tThe New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said Straub is applying for a casino license, but his application is not yet complete.<\/p>\n
\tRevel shut down on Sept. 2, triggering what participants described as one of the most difficult and far-reaching efforts to sell a casino that any of them could recall. Ramy Ibrahim, a senior vice president with Moelis & Co., the investment banking firm handling expressions of interest in Revel, said more than 250 potential buyers were spoken to, and scores had toured the property over the last 16 months.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt has been the most marketed casino asset in the U.S.,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been the broadest, most diverse process we have ever been involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe closing of the deal came a day after a bankruptcy judge formally authorized its sale on the fifth attempt. Judge Gloria Burns entered the final sale order Monday morning after verbally approving the deal last week.<\/p>\n
\tThe judge\u2019s order left unresolved one of the stickiest aspects of the sale: the rights of former business tenants at Revel to continue to operate there once Straub re-opens the property. Her order specified that the tenants\u2019 rights are not wiped out by the sale agreement; last week, she said those rights need to be dealt with in a forum other than bankruptcy court.<\/p>\n
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Wayne Parry, Associated Press \u00b7 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Revel, the billion-dollar resort bust that was once widely viewed as the potential savior of Atlantic City\u2019s struggling casino industry, is getting a second chance as part of a Florida…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}