Revel Casino Cost To Build
It cost $2.4 billion to build Atlantic City's Revel casino and hotel a couple of years ago, but the property was just sold at a bankruptcy auction for a mere $110 million.
News is circulating that Caesar’s Entertainment is set to make a bid for the Revel Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City. Revel Casino cost $2.6 Billion to build however without a solid connection to a larger organization it went bankrupt last year, after only opening its doors in April 2012. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Revel, the multibillion-dollar resort bust that was once widely viewed as the potential saviour of Atlantic City’s struggling casino industry, is getting a second chance as part of a Florida developer’s ambitious plan to remake the East Coast gambling resort into a destination for bettors and tourists alike. The casino cost $2.4 billion to build, but Brookfield Asset Management is paying just $110 million to buy it out of bankruptcy court.
Winning bidder Brookfield Asset Management plans to reopen the venue as a casino, but won't say whether it will keep the Revel name.
Brookfield has owned the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas since 2011, and hasalso run the Atlantis Paradise Island resort and casino in the Bahamas since 2012.
The deal still needs to be approved by the bankruptcy court judge, but it looks like Brookfield is about to score a tremendous bargain.
The extremely lowprice may be the key to making the new casino a success in the same exact spot where Revel failed.
'The new owner got a high-cost asset at a rock-bottom price. They have a significant advantage over the original investors who took enormous losses,' said Joseph Seneca, an economics and policy professor at Rutgers University.
But the new casino, like the rest of Atlantic City, still faces an uphill battle amid intense competition from casinos out of state.
Annual revenue for all of Atlantic City's casinos fell 6.2% last year. This year, four out of 12 Atlantic City casinos were forced to close: Revel, Showboat, and the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino closed at the end of the summer, while Atlantic Club Casino Hotel shut its doors in January.
That put about 8,000 people out of work.
'We are certainly hopeful that this is a positive step forward for Revel and for Atlantic City,' said Ben Begleiter, a spokesman for the local casino workers' union.
Willis declined to say whether all 3,100 of Revel's workers will be rehired.
Developer Glen Straub said on Tuesday that he plans to reopen the shuttered Revel resort with a casino, although a smaller one than what was there before.
Straub, who owns the site, told The Associated Press he has made up his mind to offer casino gambling at the resort, ending a long period of uncertainty about its future.
'We'll have a casino that's about 50 percent of what was there,' he said.
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He gave no timetable for the opening of a casino, which he indicated would come after other plans that are already underway for the resort. Straub said he is moving forward first with plans for a water park at the resort, which could start construction in late May. Hotel rooms could be open by June, he said.
The Florida developer's application for a state casino license is incomplete, and it appears unlikely a casino could open at Revel this summer, given the lengthy investigation state gambling regulators would be required to undertake.
Straub said he plans to hire an operator to run the casino, which would include Asian gambling attractions.
Revel had high hopes of reinvigorating Atlantic City's struggling casino market when it opened April 2, 2012. But it never caught on with gamblers, filed for bankruptcy twice and shut down on Sept. 2, 2014. It was one of four Atlantic City casinos to go out of business that year.
It cost $2.4 billion to build, but Straub bought it for $82 million from bankruptcy court.
Cost To Build Casino
If Straub succeeds in reopening Revel with a casino, it would become the city's 9th casino. Its next-door neighbor, the former Showboat Casino Hotel, was bought last week by Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein, who has yet to decide whether to reopen it as a casino or as a non-gambling attraction.
Revel Casino Sold
Taken together, the two developments could represent some hope for growth in the Atlantic City casino market, even as the area braces for losses from two new casinos being proposed for the northern part of the state. A bill is pending in the state Legislature for a November referendum in which voters would be asked whether to approve the new casinos.
Atlantic City's eight surviving casinos have begun to stabilize their finances with less competition, and it remains to be seen how a reopened Revel or Showboat might affect that tenuous balance.
Straub has also said the new casino won't be named Revel, but he has yet to decide on a new moniker.
Cost To Build Revel Casino
He cleared away a major obstacle to its reopening last fall when he decided to buy the power plant that was at the heart of months of litigation that was preventing the complex from being occupied again.