Revel Buyer Brookfield Walks Away From Casino Deal
Photo | Dan McQuade
The company that won ownership of Atlantic City’s shuttered Revel Casino during a heated bankruptcy auction last month is walking away from the deal.
The Press of Atlantic City reports Brookfield US Holdings — which bid $110 million on the property — “has made the decision because bondholders controlling debt connected to construction of Revel’s power plant refuse to rework fixed costs connected to the plant’s construction.”
Construction of the Revel, of course, cost $2.4 billion. It was open less than two years before closing in bankruptcy in September, part of a wave of Atlantic City casino failures. The Press reported in 2012 that the new District Energy Center — the Revel’s “utility nerve center” — cost $160 million to build.
Glenn Straub, a Florida developer who spoke of creating a “university for geniuses” as part of the Revel redevelopment, lost the October bidding, having offered $95.4 million for facility. He told the Atlantic City paper that he remains interested in the property; indeed, he had been appealing Brookfields’ victory at auction.
