Our long Revel nightmare is over; Big brawl at Resorts World

It only took five tries but it looks like Revel finally belongs to Glenn Straub, the latter having dropped his insistence that it be sold to him free and clear. Now we’ll see if he’s like Straubthe dog who caught the car or he has a winning formula for a property that has done nothing but lose since Day One. Judge Gloria Burns ruled, “The consideration to be provided by the purchaser pursuant to the agreement is fair and reasonable; is the highest or otherwise best offer for the assets; will provide a greater recovery for the debtors’ creditors than would be provided by any other practically available alternative; and constitutes reasonably equivalent value and fair consideration under the Bankruptcy Code.” Sighed Burns, “there’s no funding left” to prolong the bankruptcy sale.

As for the vexatious issue of the tenants and their rights under Straub, who sported a yellow Revel security windbreaker and offered some eccentric testimony, Burns kicked that can down the road  by saying it was an issue for a different forum. Their rights though, she said, were not voided by her sale order, although she said they could hope for little more than a penny once bankers and lawyers have been paid. Straub plans to evict them all before proceeding with grander schemes, including completion of the long-in-abeyance second hotel tower.

ACR Energy Partners loses out, told that its business with Revel is not an “assumed contract.” (ACR’s hard-line insistence on being reimbursed for the cost of its power plant and defaulted energy bills scared off a last-minute bid by developers Howard Milstein and Carl Goldberg). By outflanking Carl Icahn and buying the adjacent GriffinShowboat, Straub now has alternative means of connecting to the power grid, piggybacking onto Showboat’s infrastructure. The Showboat purchase was a real coup de foudre, coming out of a clear blue sky: Straub pays $26 million, Stockton University makes an $8 million profit on the property and Icahn now has to pick on someone his own size. Straub plans to lease the Showboat back to Stockton, much to the vexation of Icahn’s minions, who have already thwarted Stockton’s summer sessionTrump Entertainment Resorts‘ CEO Robert Griffin took time off from running Trump Taj Mahal into the ground to come out against education at the Showboat. “We will not permit it,” thundered Griffin(left).

“He tried making himself seem like he was the better person,” a Stockton student emissary said of Griffin, who tried to fob off derelict Trump Plaza on the school. The pompous CEO is flying in the face of civic sentiment. “By all means, we’re going to move forward and keep Showboat as a university. We are a big proponent and a big supporter of having the economy diversified,” said city council President Frank M. Gilliam. Mayor Don Guardian‘s chief of staff, Chris Filiciello, added, “We all agree that the university is the best use for that property and for Atlantic City.” Strangely, Straub wasn’t feeling the love, testifying “It is just tough to do business in that city. How many times have I met with the mayor?” The aforementioned mayor said, “This is the future of our city and there is nothing more important than bringing Stockton to Atlantic City. I am sorry that everything in this city is so difficult, but this is a no brainer. This is good for Atlantic City now and in the future.”

Stockton, incidentally, gets to repurchase the casino if Icahn and Griffin’s obstructionism goes away in the next year and a half, prompting Stockton President Herman Saatkamp to
revel_0601say, “I am assured by counsel and others that we are on very firm ground should there be any legal challenges by any casinos regarding the 1988 covenant.” In the meantime, Straub gets to roll up his sleeves and get cracking on $150 million in improvements to Revel.

It’s just the start: Straub is talking about a half-billion-dollar capital commitment to Atlantic City for which buying Bader Field and turning it back into a working airport is just the start. The grand scheme is called the Phoenix Project, although it would be a bit of an exaggeration to like Atlantic City to a pile of ashes.

The last (?) word should go to Wells Fargo attorney Thomas Kreller, who pleaded with Judge Burns to stop believing that “there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Your honor: There isn’t a tunnel. It’s a hole. It gets deeper, and there is no light.” Today, there is light.

* Resorts World Las Vegas will be bringing big fights to the Strip, if recent events at Aqueduct are a precursor. What was supposed to be the opening of a Fat Tuesday turned into a cage match involving two dozen chair-throwing combatants. Despite the number of people throwing punches — and chairs — cops only arrested two and only one faces charges. Resorts Worlds New York is something of a magnet for crime, with a litany of incidents that includes a degenerate granny playing slots while her five-year-old daughter was locked in the car. As for these brawlers, Floyd Mayweather‘s got nothing on them for unleashed violence.

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