The possible new Revel Casino-Hotel owner intends to continue to use the property as a casino, said Brookfield spokesman Andrew Willis.
Brookfield US Holdings LLC won the Revel Casino Hotel bankruptcy auction Wednesday morning with a $110 million offer, said Revel spokeswoman Lisa Johnson.
But even as a winner was declared, nothing was resolved as the sun rose on the shuttered glass tower.
A sale to the firm must be approved by a federal judge at an Oct. 7 hearing, Johnson said.
But stalking horse bidder Glenn Straub, who made an initial bid of $90 million, has complained about a lack of transparency in the process and promised to take the matter to court.
"We're taking it to the courts," said Straub from New York's LaGuardia airport Wednesday morning, where he waited for an early flight back home to Florida. "We're not doing anything else."
The two sides traded bids Tuesday night and Brookfield US Holdings of Delaware eventually pushed their off to $98 million.
Straub's group wanted to counter the offer but they could not reach their accountant at around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Straub's attorney Stuart Moskovitz said.
Brookfield then offered $110 million but told Revel the offer was only good until 6 a.m., Moskovitz said.
Without access to their accountants, Moskovitz criticized that as an "extortionate bid," and pledged to fight it out in the courts. He said, "There's no question that's where this will all end up."
US Securities and Exchange Commission filings indicate the current top bidder, Delaware-based Brookfield US Holdings, is an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, a far-flung entity with a labyrinthine corporate structure based in Toronto, Canada. It describes itself as a “global alternative asset manager with approximately $175 billion in assets under management.”
Contact information listed a Wall Street address and a Toronto area code. The number, when called, was not in service.
One wholly owned subsidiary is responsible for refurbishing the Star City Casino in Sydney, Australia.
Another affiliate invested $200 million in the acquisition and expansion of Las Vegas’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. When the casino faltered, Brookfield Real Estate Finance Fund II used the loan to assume control of the property in 2011.
A third affiliate took over the sprawling Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas in 2012 in exchange for forgiving $175 million in debt to the founders Kerzner International. That property also has a casino on-site.
It is not clear what its plans are for the Revel building.
Straub, a South Florida real estate developer, made an opening offer of $90 million cash for the property at the end of the resort’s Boardwalk casino strip.
The wealthy polo enthusiast has talked about placing a university of geniuses on site to deal with world problems, erecting a second tower, as well as demolishing the structure – the second tallest in the state – if plans go awry.
Brookfield US Holdings and Straub’s firm Polo North Country Club, Inc. were the only firms to offer bids for the showcase property on Tuesday.
The bidding came as Straub’s attorneys also asked a federal judge on Tuesday to order Revel’s attorneys to produce the current bids and postpone the auction until 9 a.m. Thursday. Straub’s attorneys also claimed that Revel never produced the other bids as previously agreed upon.
"We've never had anything like this before," Straub said.
Straub has complained about the meetings leading up to the auction. If the bid deadline was Sept. 23, he asked “how the hell can you have six hours of meetings” several days later?
Bidders initially met for the auction last week, although the day was consumed with meetings and further negotiations. No bidding took place, and the auction was scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Revel opened in 2012 at a cost of $2.4 billion, with the promise of $264 million in state tax abatements. But it never turned a profit, never tapped into the abatements, went bankrupt twice and finally closed its doors on Sept. 2, throwing more than 2,600 people out of work.
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian said he expected the auction to conclude Tuesday as he extolled the qualities of the glass Revel tower at an event for entertainment and leisure writers in Philadelphia Monday night.
“That is the most architecturally significant building that has been built in Atlantic City, for that matter New Jersey, in the last 35 years,” Guardian said. “It has a great history. We just have to find the right management company to come down there and truly be able to use the building at that location on the beach.”
Revel was one of four resort casinos that have closed in 2014 in the face of regional competition. A fifth, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, has threatened to shut down in mid-November.
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