The Revel Casino has been an eye-sore on the Atlantic city boardwalk for almost 4 years now. Remembered by residents as a tremendous failure the Revel Casino initially opened its doors to gamblers and the community on April 2nd, 2012. The opening was short lived as two years later the casino was closed after filling for chapter 11 bankruptcy twice in two years. This etched Revel as the 3rd of 4 casino closings in Atlantic city for 2014.
In 2014, 4 Atlantic City casinos closed its doors, the Atlantic club, Showboat, Revel and Trump plaza. The Revel cost approximately $2.4 Billion to build and was a true spectacle located just off the famous New Jersey boardwalk. Some people blamed the closures on the cities lack of tourism options others blamed it on the saturation of casinos in the area. Whatever it was it was a trend that had many casinos worried about their future going into 2015.
Well things are changing for Atlantic city and now it looks like things might be changing for the old Revel Casino too. Since its closure, there have been several deals being made to try to sell the property to investors but only one ever happened. Glen Straub bought the casino in 2014 at a reported $82 million USD with aspirations of opening a resort or a resort casino named TEN. Straub said he intended on keeping Revel, but the state and federal government regulations frustrated his plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars that the casino needed to compete with other high-end casinos in Atlantic City. TEN never opened its doors and now the reports coming from that end of the boardwalk is that the casino has been sold to Colorado developer Bruce Deifik for $200 million USD.
The new casino will be called the Ocean Resort Casino and Deifik says the investment is a dream come true. Deifik is a renowned veteran of the development industry and founder, president and chief of his company Integrated Properties Inc. His company started in 1990 to assist with development and leasing of commercial properties in the Denver and Phoenix metropolitan areas.
The news of the casino opening has some New Jersey residents concerned that the addition of another big casino opening might cause a similar effect to what happened in 2014 when 4 casinos shut down. However, Deifik is not concerned and has big plans for the new casino in New Jersey. Deifik has stated that if New Jersey wins the U.S. Supreme Court case to legalize sports betting then he will open a sportsbook facility in the casino. He also said the casino plans to employ approximately 3,000 people and the casino will feature over 100 table games and over 2,000 slot machines.
Glen Straub sold the property for what seems like an astronomical profit but claims that he incurred huge expenses while keeping it closed. He claims a big portion of his expenses included legal fees he used to fight government regulations that he was opposed to. Straub still owns more than 60 properties in Atlantic City which he plans to use for a boost to an economic movement throughout the city.
It is still unclear what direction the new Ocean City Resort Casino will take or when it will aim to open, but many enthusiasts believe it will open an Atlantic City online casino platform sooner rather than later. On February 26th, 2013, governor Chris Christie signed into law a piece of legislation that allowed for casinos to offer online gambling services to New Jersey residents and by December of the same year over 100,000 online casino accounts had been created.
Source: CNBC