Brookfield Asset Management. the group that paid $110 million to buy the Revel, plans to invest at least $200 million to fix it up with the intention of reopening the property next year.
Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) Chairman James Kehoe told the NJ Alliance for Action that Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is expected to secure a financing deal as early as December 2014. It’s the start of a clean slate Revel needed since it closed down in September 2014, after two years of disastrous operations.
The Toronto-based asset management firm has made it known that it plans to reopen the luxury hotel and casino but has held back on making a specific timetable. Brookfield certainly has the track record to succeed in the industry, owning the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the Atlantis Paradise Island casino in the Bahamas.
“One thing they bring is a book of business,” Kehoe said.
Revel ordered to pay back taxes worth $32 million
A bankruptcy court judge has granted Atlantic City the green light to collect unpaid taxes from the casino amounting to $32 million. The order was issued by Judge Gloria Burns, the same judge who rejected Revel’s attempts at re-opening a past tax settlement and approved the sale to Brookfield Asset Management.
The casino’s new owners are obligated to settle the tax debt once the $110 million purchase of the property from bankruptcy court is complete. According to City Attorney Jason Holt, a portion of the proceeds from the sale would be put into an escrow account to settle the tax debt.
If the purchase isn’t completed by early December, Atlantic City can sell a tax sale certificate to an outside investor, who in turn pays the taxes and buys a lien against the property. Brookfield would then have to pay off the investor and if that doesn’t happen, the investor could foreclose the property in two years.
