Revel Sold

Straub (1)

Billionaire Glenn Straub Buys Revel for 82 Million Dollars, ACR Energy Partners File To Block Sale

By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent

Billionaire developer Glenn Straub is the new owner of Revel Atlantic City. It is official!

Billionaire developer Glenn Straub discusses his plans for Revel Atlantic City
http://videos.pressofatlanticcity.com/Glenn-Straub-discusses-Water-Park-at-Revel–28327591

Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns never entered into a final agreement last week terminating billionaire developer Glenn Straub’s Palm Beach Polo North Country Club $95.4 million dollar offer to buy Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with $10 million dollars held in escrow. The door open for one more try, Straub’s final offer of 82 million dollars for Revel was accepted, and the deal agreed on Tuesday, February 24, 2015. The deal will formally closeMarch 31, 2015, according to Straub’s attorney Stuart Moskovitz.Straub plans to spend at least 500 million dollars to improve the 47 floor hotel and casino.

In November 2014, a Canadian firm lost an $11 million dollar deposit and backed out of a $110 million deal to buy The Revel due to unpaid debt from construction of the power plant, an unpaid debt the potential new buyer did not want to assume.

Polo North is working with its team to finalize the operational plan for the property to be spectacularly successful year round. Their plans include major construction of a fifty million dollar renovation and expansion of the exterior of the building, a fifty million dollar interior renovation which with a more accessible hotel lobby, a scaled down casino, a large medical health spa and facility, and Florida style controlled indoor and outdoor recreational facilities to include: a Ferris Wheel;sports facilities;concert facilities;a manmade mountain for skiing and snowboarding; a soccer franchise; and an indoor and outdoor water park. Straub will also offer Revel revelers, tourists and gamers high speed ferry or catamaran service from Manhattan to Atlantic City. A nightclub located within Revel has gone to court to stay open, presumably to try to retain its own operation.

However, it may take a while for boxing and other sporting events to return to The Revel.

In a motion filed with the bankruptcy court a day later, on Wednesday, February 26, 2015, ACR Energy Partners wants a bankruptcy court judge to cancel the latest proposed sale to a Florida developer, and appoint a trustee to liquidate the property instead.ACR wants the court to convert Revel’s bankruptcy from a Chapter 11 restructuring case (in which the business would re-open under new ownership) to a Chapter 7 case whereby a trustee would liquidate the remaining assets.

ACR Energy Partners stated the latest Revel sale contract to Florida developer Glenn Straub would leave nothing for most creditors, and would cost the power supplier $32 million.ACR calls the $82 million sale of Revel to Straub hopelessly flawed, noting the casino’s lender, Wells Fargo, set aside only $1.35 million to cover $50 million in creditor claims, a return of only one dollar and thirty five cents for every 50 dollars investors invested in the Revel project.

Revel cost $2.4 billion dollars to build. Revel closed September 2, 2014, after only two years of operation, never having turned a profit. Revel appeared awkward, designed as a Las Vegas style casino which seemed not quite finished, was difficult to access from the Atlantic City Boardwalk, never had regular bus service, offered inadequate perks versus the other hotel casinos of Atlantic City, and was overpriced and unpopular. Trump Plaza, Showboat and ACH (formerly the Hilton) all closed about the same time as Revel. Trump Taj Mahal was bought and saved by billionaire Carl Icahn, who owns Tropicana Casino & Resort.
Billionaire developer Glenn Straub’s outstanding record of success in Florida offers bright hope Atlantic City can be revitalized as a tourist destination in the near future, offering recreation of ongoing interest of far more than just hotel rooms, casinos and a boardwalk.

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