Glenn Straub – the bidder, who became a runner-up during the auction for Revel Casino acquisition, got the chance to buy the struggling casino when the Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management gave up on its intentions to obtain the property for the sum of $110 million.
However, Polo North Country Club and Straub in particular, announced their claims towards the auction. According to the court filings, Straub does not consider the auction to have been fair and transparent enough so he wants to get a discount, amounting to $8 million on the purchase of the Atlantic City-based Revel Casino Hotel.
A few days ago, Straub’s lawyers said that their client wanted to buy the property for the sum of $87 million. By comparison, Polo North Country Club placed a bid totaling $95 million during the auction.
Brookfield Asset Management was the winner and was about to reopen the closed venue as a casino but later, company’s executives refused to ink the deal. The reason was that they could not reach an agreement, concerning the expensive maintenance of Revel’s power plant.
Soon after that, Glenn Straub said that he was still interested in acquiring the casino and a court hearing was scheduled for January 5th.
Surprising or not, Straub revealed that he was not quite sure if the auction was fair since the organizers failed in notifying his company on time about the involvement of Brookfield in the auction.
Straub also said that he was not likely to bid more than $90 million provided that he knew about all the “improprieties” that accompanied the bidding procedure.
In addition to the discount, Straub also required to receive the deduction of $3 million he was previously promised to get as a breakup fee since Revel keeps the sum of $11 million as a deposit, granted by Brookfield.
According to the court filing, Revel should go through the bidding procedure once again and Straub has to get compensation on grounds that the judge finds out any issues that automatically made Revel unable to receive the highest bid.
What made Straub even more suspicious about the auction was the fact that the firm, known as White and Case was in charge of running the sale. However, it represented Brookfield, which gave Straub a reason to believe that there were dishonest practices and White and Case was “dictating the terms”.
A representative of White and Case was asked for a comment but no official information has been revealed to the media so far.
During the auction, Straub proposed the shuttered casino to be reopened as an academy where the world’s brightest minds could discuss and solve the most complicated problems of the society.
Revel Casino and Hotel was available for players for two years but it never brought a profit to its owners. Revel filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of September and joined the other three Atlantic City-based venues that closed doors for visitors throughout 2014.
