Mr. Deifik, who took over the failed Revel last year to reopen it as Ocean Resort Casino, has died in a fatal car accident
Colorado businessman Bruce Deifik has died in a car crash, news emerged this past Monday. The reopening of the shuttered Revel casino as Ocean Resort Casino was among Mr. Deifik’s latest business endeavors.
The businessman’s lawyer, Paul O’Gara, told The Associated Press that Mr. Deifik died in a single-car crash Sunday night while he was driving home from a Colorado Rockies game in Denver, his hometown.
A Denver-based medical examiner confirmed that an autopsy of the businessman’s body has been concluded. Results were still pending at press time. The cause of the crash is being investigated and the medical examiner is considering the possibility that Mr. Deifik might have suffered a medical crisis while driving his car.
Commenting on the Denver businessman’s dead, a spokesperson for Ocean Resort Casino said in a statement that they “are saddened to learn that Bruce Deifik, the former owner of Ocean Resort Casino, has passed away.” The statement went on that the “Ocean family is grateful for Bruce having the vision to re-open this beautiful oceanfront property and employing over 3,000 members of our community.”
Mr. Deifik’s Casino Endeavor
Mr. Deifik took over the failed Revel casino from Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub in January 2018. The Colorado businessman paid $200 million for the shuttered Boardwalk resort and invested another $200 million to materialize his vision of reopening the property and turning it into a popular hub for tourists and casino gamblers.
The re-imagined Ocean Resort Casino opened doors in June 2018. The resort’s new owner promised to learn from the mistakes of its previous proprietors and introduce a concept that would be more oriented toward mass market visitors. The former Revel was advertised as a high roller property during its short existence. The resort originally launched in 2012 to close doors only two years later.
Despite the multi-million investment, Ocean Resort Casino quickly began hemorrhaging money and fell below the minimum required liquidity levels shortly after its opening. Reports about Mr. Deifik looking for buyers of the underperforming property first emerged in December. The sale of the casino resort was confirmed in January.
Mr. Deifik was in the process of handing his majority ownership to New York-based hedge fund Luxor Capital Group before his death.
The businessman was the President and Chief Executive of Integrated Properties Inc., which owned more than 100 commercial properties in five US states, including more resorts and retail and office buildings.
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