Wayne Parry. “Revel casino reopening to begin June 15”. The Salt Lake Tribune. Also in January, Straub announced his plans for the former Revel Resort, including a smaller casino, water park, and other family attractions. A month later, Revel stated that it had received another $150 million in loans, including a $125 million term loan and a $25 million increase to an existing $100 million revolving loan. On August 20, 2012, Revel asked lenders for a $100 million credit cushion. None of the $261 million in tax incentives was paid to Revel. Revel resumed construction in February 2011 after new financing was secured, and opened with 1399 rooms. In the summer of 2008 the project was officially scaled back to include just one hotel tower with 1,900 rooms due to lack of financing. One of the property’s tenants and new management of the property announced plans to reopen Revel under the name TEN.
A tower crane on the Revel construction site collapsed in high winds on March 13, 2010, injuring one person on the ground. Straub’s team had not held a job fair or hired staff to run the operation, apart from the few facilities and security staff that were inherited with the purchase of the Revel in 2015. Straub said anyone who learned the resort was open, was welcome to check in. On Tuesday, March 15, 2016, Atlantic City officials Dale Finch (Director of Licence & Inspections) Elizabeth Terenik (Director of Planning & Development), Scott Evans (Fire Chief), and Wally Shields (Construction Official) conducted an inspection of Revel, escorted by Revel’s facilities manager. Revel’s chief engineer, John Lezenby, resigned on June 9, 2015, leaving behind nine engineers and four security guards to continue to run the Revel’s critical systems. Engineers have since returned to the property. Straub also said he expected to have 500 hotel rooms ready to go and most, if not all, of the property’s restaurants up and running, stating that the restaurants’ owners had been wanting to reopen since the property originally closed. By August 18, Revel Casino Hotel announced the official closing. It is the northernmost casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, located on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land, adjacent to the Showboat Hotel.
The deal was announced after Atlantic City threatened to issue fines and said it would consider litigation if the building’s interior dipped below 40 degrees. Later that month, on September 11, 2014, the casino reached a deal to sell itself to Glenn Straub’s Polo North Country Club, a developer based in Florida, for $90 million, a fraction of the cost of construction. Construction of the resort cost $2.4 billion. On January 28, the new owner was identified as Luxor Capital Group LP, a New York-based hedge fund with around $3.2 billion in assets under management. Two days after Revel was sold to Polo North Country Club, on the afternoon of April 9, 2015; ACR, owner of the Energetic Inlet District Energy Center (which is the sole source of primary power, backup power, and hot and chilled water to the Revel) stopped supplying power and water to the building. In early 2013, because of uncertainty about whether Revel would have enough revenue to pay back its loans, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s downgraded Revel’s credit rating again to Caa3 and CC, respectively.
The prepackaged bankruptcy will include immediate payment of all priority claims (e.g., vendors, taxes), and the reduction of Revel’s debt from $1.503 billion to $272 million in exchange for the transfer of all of Revel’s equity to the creditors. As stated above, several bankruptcy court orders protected HQ’s right to operate at the facility. BLT Architects was the executive architect for the entirety of the project and architect of record for 75% of the facility. In March 2009, construction was stopped because of difficulties in raising the financing necessary to complete the project. Arquitectonica was the design architect of the project. On the night of February 29, 2016, the signature Pearl at the top of Revel was lit for the first time since the resort closed. On February 17, 2011, Revel Entertainment Group, LLC announced that it completed a $1.15 billion financing package which enabled the company to complete construction of Revel. Glenn Straub said a job fair was planned and that Polo North was looking to bring back as many former Revel employees as possible to the new Revel, and that it was ready to open as soon as possible. Additionally, he stated the reopened resort would not be named Revel, but he had yet to decide on a name.
