T
The date for the Revel Casino Hotel auction was rescheduled after new bidders have shown interest. The new auction is to be held next Tuesday, the 30th of September. Until now, the recently bankrupted Atlantic City casino has attracted only one bidder – Mr. Glenn Straub.
The casino has received a number of proposals since it announced bankruptcy earlier this month, starting from $40 million. The current bid of Mr. Straub is $90 million.
On September 23rd (Tuesday), the news agency Reuters announced that there are new bidders, and the lawyers taking care of the deal are now changing the agenda of the proceeding. Even though the auction is to be privately conducted, it is now known that there are two more bidders, a real estate organization and an entertainment organization, which has other gaming facilities in the State of New Jersey.
It is speculated that one of the new bidders is Mr. Meruelo, who was present at the official bankruptcy filing of Revel on the 15th of September. He and his brother own Meruelo Group, which has also tried to offer a proposal in 2013 to purchase another Atlantic City resort that has deep financial troubles – Trump Plaza.
According to the policy for bidding in such auctions, the new bidders must propose an amount higher than $94 million in order to be able to participate. The authorities which deal with the Revel bankruptcy proceedings, must also approve the application of the new bidders before they compete with Mr. Straub.
Currently, the proposal of Straub has not set any preliminary requirements and offers to pay in cash. It is reported that Revel may be able to keep its gambling license.
In an interview for Reuters, Mr. Straub surprisingly commented on his plans for the future of Revel, if it is to come under his ownership. If he wins the bid for Revel, he may plan to build another tower, and transform the facility into a whole new establishment with purpose opposite to the one it has now.
As shocking as it may be for many, the developer plans to turn Revel into a think-tanks facility where great young minds will work to provide solutions to problems of international importance – ‘cure the worlds of its hiccups’, Straub added. Such ‘hiccups’, according to Straub, are common incurable diseases, nuclear power and recycling and world hunger.
The public was further amazed by Straub’s ideas and statements when he answered the question ‘What type of scholars are planned to work in such a facility?’ – ‘free, white and over 21’. He further tried to clarify that by ‘free’ he meant ‘debt-free’, yet that did not answer why he requires of the scholars to be white.
Philadelphia inquirer later on conducted an interview with Mr. Straub, where he explained that he wants to offer a chance to bright young people to learn how to solve globally recognized problems – ‘white, black whatever it may be’.
One thing is known for sure, the public hopes that whatever the outcome of the auction for Revel may be, it will be better erudite than the plans and ideas of Mr. Straub.
