Officials silent on bid qualifiers

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 11:31 a.m.

Attorneys representing creditors and management of the Aladdin hotel-casino worked late into the night Tuesday to analyze bids to buy the bankrupt Strip property.

Tuesday was the deadline for offers to compete against a "stalking horse" bid of $635 million from a group headed by Planet Hollywood co-founder Robert Earl and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, White Plains, N.Y. Earl and Starwood want to transform the Aladdin into a movie-themed Planet Hollywood hotel-casino.

Attorneys representing the resort said late Tuesday that they had no comment on who offered competitive bids or how many offers had been received. Qualifying competitive bids will be presented to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert C. Jones on Friday in a hearing that could turn into an auction for the $1.2 billion property, which opened in August 2000, but fell into bankruptcy 13 months later.

Two groups earlier publicly announced their intent to present bids for the property.

One potential bidder is Los Angeles businessman Richard Alter, who wants to transform the property into a resort known as Asia. Alter says he is backed by Marriott International Inc., Bethesda, Md., which has had no comment on the deal.

A second potential bidder is comprised of Southern California real estate developers Calstar Properties Inc., Laguna Niguel, and a group of Asian investors known as the KenPat Entertainment Group. Spokesman Federico Sayre, an attorney who also is an investor, has not disclosed detailed plans for the hotel-casino from the Calstar-KenPat group, but said it would be appealing to creditors because it would be an all-cash offer.