Bankrupt $2.4bn Revel Casino Sold For Just $90m

According to the latest reports, Atlantic City’s $2.4 billion flop, the Revel Casino Hotel, has now been snapped up for $90 million by Florida real-estate developer Glenn Straub. Following announcement of the deal, Mr. Straub, said the purchase represented “an opportunity [for AC] to turn things around,” before adding:
“That’s what they need right now—a new direction. Give us our six months, and we’ll actually physically be open. In two years, we’ll be 100% open.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Straub has not indicated whether Revel would continue to operate as a casino, although he did hint that he was not keen to see his family profit from a solely gambling based enterprise. Mr. Straub is president of the Polo North Country Club, a company which currently has 600 different projects on the go, and talking about what his company does, replied:
“We feel the city needs what we do – we are like doctors who turn around sick patients. We turn around big properties.. It’s not going to be just a casino. There’s four people that would make excellent casino operators, but that building is much, much more than just a casino.”
Apparently, Palm Beach Polo has already paid a $10 million deposit towards the purchase, although the company is considered just an initial bidder, and could receive a $3 million break-up fee if it is eventually outbid at auction.
The huge Revel casino resort cost $2.4 billion to build and opened in 2012 complete with 1,800 hotel rooms, 14 restaurants, as well as numerous theaters and nightclubs. Revel also employed around 3,100 staff, who subsequently found themselves out of a job after it closed less than a week ago.
However, Revel’s problems are systematic of the woes currently besieging Atlantic City’s declining casino industry, and by the end of 2014 AC is expected to have lost 5 of its 12 casinos, with the The Atlantic Club already having shut its doors in January, and the Showboat, the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza Hotel casinos all expected to follow suit.