[toc]We got some more tea leaves to read in the ongoing saga of Atlantic City’s Revel/TEN.
There’s now more evidence that owner Glenn Straub has sold his interest in the shuttered casino resort, although that evidence still falls short of full confirmation.
What we know about Revel/TEN
At the tail-end of 2017, we started seeing rumblings that the former Revel had been sold. If the sale is actually happening, it’s one of the more cloak-and-dagger transactions in the history of Atlantic City.
No one seems to be publicly admitting it or talking about it, and Straub has continued to insist he hasn’t sold the property.
But the apparent buyer of Revel/TEN — AC Ocean Walk LLC — appears to have take even more steps. Here’s the latest from the blog Route 40:
[Denver-based developer Bruce] Deifik registered a new company as a “casino hotel resort” in New Jersey and, through that new company, agreed to a mortgage on the former Revel property with the investment bank JPMorgan Chase.
Route 40 learned that the new business is called ACOWRE LLC by finding its business registration (here). That all comes as Moody’s assigned a credit rating to Ocean Walk last month.
So, is Revel/TEN really reopening?
The Moody’s report referenced above talks about a May 2018 reopening for the property.
Of course, since we don’t even have an official timeline for the sale of Revel/TEN — and it’s now January — May seems like an aggressive timeline. The Moody’s report suggests that the “new owners will invest another $175 million” in the property. That’s a lot of renovation and changes to Revel/TEN to make happen in a few short months.
The casino resort’s website says it is scheduled to open in 2018. However, the site also said that it would open in 2017 throughout last year.
So despite the latest movement, it’s not at all clear how quickly Revel/TEN will be open for business once again.\
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Optimism is up in AC
Even though we still don’t really know what’s going to happen with Revel/TEN, there are lots of reasons for AC to be optimistic.
Hard Rock AC (the former Trump Taj Mahal) will almost certainly open its doors this summer. That will mean more jobs for a town trying to shake free of the state takeover, and more people in AC during the busy summer months. The Stockton University Gateway project is also slated to wrap up this year.
Through it all, the status of Revel/TEN remains one of the stories to watch in NJ gambling in 2018.
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