After Florida-based mogul Glenn Straub missed the deadline to close on the $95 million purchase of the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, the deal is once again on the verge of falling through.
Straub’s company, Polo North Country Club, asked for an extension of the closing deadline until later in February, according to Bloomberg. Revel, in turn, asked a bankruptcy court to not only drop the proposed sale but also asked to keep Straub’s $10 million deposit, the website reported. A hearing to decide the two matters was scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Simandle scheduled an emergency hearing that halted the pending sale. Some tenants have tried to block the transaction unless their property rights are protected. An appeals court ruled in favor of one of the tenants late last week, which led others to file similar motions. Straub then threatened to drop out of the deal if it didn’t go forward as previously specified.
Brookfield Asset Management had planned to buy the casino hotel for $110 million, but that deal fell through late last year. Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build, closed in September 2014, causing more than 3,000 people to lose their jobs.
“It will take months before they can bring anybody in, if they can find any bidder at all,” Straub’s lawyer Stuart Moskovitz wrote in an email to the website. He reportedly also wrote that no other buyer will offer “close to what we are willing to pay.” [Bloomberg] — Claire Moses