FILE – This Oct. 17, 2012 file photo shows the Revel, Atlantic City, N.J.’s newest casino. Revel, the casino many people had hoped would turn around Atlantic City’s sagging fortunes, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, less than a year after it opened. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File)
Sunday 21st July, Brighton beach 5.30am
Seagull on open bin…
Photographer Tony Wood
TW210713A6
Broken Windows and Dreams: Revel Atlantic City Seagull Casino Wars
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Atlantic City, NJ (August 22, 2015)– Broken windows and dreams continue to tell the ongoing court story of the 1800 room Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which cost 2.4 billion dollars to build, and remains lock jammed in litigation between new owner Glen Straub and its sole energy supplier ACR Energy. Developer Glen Straub, owner of Polo North Country Club in Florida, paid 82 million dollars for the bankrupt Revel in April 2015. Revel Atlantic City was a noted location of hotel rooms, casino gambling, restaurants, nightclubs, shows and entertainment, including televised boxing, during its brief period of operation from April 2, 2012, to September 11, 2014, when it declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for the second time.
Large sixty pound seagulls routinely crash and smash their way through the glass covered exterior of the building. Three recently smashed windows will cost Straub thirty six thousand dollars to replace, in addition to cleanup of smashed window glass, scattered seagull bird feathers, and various crabs the seagulls drop from way up to smash and eat.
Revel shut down on September 2, 2014, and since then the endless litigation between Straub and ACR Energy, the sole energy supplier of Revel, has affected both sides.
Bank of New York Mellon asserted in a recent court filing ACR Energy, which owns the power plant, has defaulted on its loans and may not survive. In a July 20, 2015, court filing referenced by a Federal judge in August 2015, Julie Morrone, a principal of a management company writing on behalf of Bank of New York Mellon, told the court ACR is running out of money, has defaulted on its loans, and is in danger of failing because it can’t recoup its true costs from Straub under a court-sanctioned interim price agreement.
ACR was sole supplier of power to Revel, under the previous owner Revel Entertainment. Straub, the new Revel owner, refuses to assume the previous owner’s contract because he is unwilling to pay off any of the debt from construction of the company’s costly power plant.
Since then, the two sides have been fighting in court over how much Straub should have to pay ACR Energy for energy the state mandated the company must provide to keep the fire safety systems powered inside Revel until Revel is renovated, redesigned and reopens.
Meanwhile, Straub has his own ideas about how to power his newly acquired palace in the sky. Straub has insisted he will install separate heating equipment to meet court ordered fire safety system regulations and compliance at Revel by November 2015, and has plans to install solar energy systems atop the Revel building’s parking garage. The Florida developer is committed to work through the Fall and Winter seasons on construction of the planned indoor-outdoor water park at Revel. However, Straub remains unsure if he will continue to offer casino gambling at Revel, if and when the new Revel is able to reopen.
In another court ruling in June 2015, HQ Nightclub, Jose Garces Restaurants, and other tenants fighting for control of leased spaces at the 6.2 million square foot Revel property, and also fighting for the right to reopen at the Revel complex, won a crucial access to the property ruling from a Federal judge, who ordered Revel’s new owner Straub and Polo North to give them access to leased space so they can try to resume operations at the beachfront property. Straub rejected the leases tenants held with the resort’s prior owner upon acquisition of the property. However, tenants maintain basic rights of access to the leased space under bankruptcy law.
For IDEA Boardwalk LLC, which owns HQ Nightclub, possessory rights include access to utilities for operation, including electricity, hot and cold water, plumbing, gas, internet, cable and telephone service. However, how can ACH Energy, the theoretical power supplier of record, nearly financially insolvent and still in ongoing litigation with Straub, be authorized to provide electricity and utilities for HQ Nightclub and the other tenants when Straub will not allow it? The ongoing court wars over Revel have created a climate of businesslike insanity which has interfered with Straub’s ability to redevelop the property.
Straub has set a 36 month agenda to deal with Revel Atlantic City, and then move on to other business interests. Straub wants to hire 6,000 people, and add the indoor-outdoor water park. He said architectural changes would cost 100 million dollars and were a year away. Referring to plans for equestrian fields at the abandoned Bader Field Airport, along with building docking facilities for high-speed ferries and helicopters, Straub stated 500 million dollars is not enough money to carry out his rejuvenation plan for Atlantic City.
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