Judge OKs sale of Revel casino, but bidder rejects deal

By Wayne Parry, Associated Press

Monday, Jan. 5, 2015 | 11:48 a.m.

CAMDEN, N.J. — A federal judge on Monday approved the sale of Atlantic City's former Revel casino to the runner-up bidder in last year's bankruptcy court auction for $95 million — but the buyer doesn't want it at that price.

Florida developer Glenn Straub bid $95.4 million for the casino resort, which cost $2.4 billion to build. He wanted bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns to approve an $87 million sale price, which she refused to do.

The judge ruled that Straub's most recent bid is still binding, and that is the price he will have to pay for it. That led Straub's attorney, Stuart Moskovitz, to say he will seek a court order blocking the sale to his client.

"I am satisfied that there was a fair auction that went forth," Burns said. "There's nothing here today that I didn't hear before or consider before."

The court approved a sale in October to Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management for $110 million. But Brookfield pulled out of the deal a month later over a dispute with bondholders over debt from the construction of Revel's costly power plant.

That led the court to turn to Straub's Polo North Country Club as the runner-up bidder, whose last bid was $95.4 million.

Moskovitz said the initial bid of $90 million should be in effect "because we believe the entire bidding process was tainted." He also wanted a $3 million "breakup fee" applied to the purchase price, which the judge denied. He objected and asked the court to set aside the auction results last year after it emerged that Revel attorneys had represented companies affiliated with Brookfield in unrelated matters.

Revel shut down on Sept. 2 after little more than two years of operation in which it never turned a profit. It was one of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014.