Revel’s past has come to haunt developer Glenn Straub.
The Press of Atlantic City reported that a Superior Court judge ordered Straub’s Polo North Country Club last week to pay $62,641 for Revel casino’s unpaid 2015 Casino Reinvestment Development Authority special improvement district (SID) fees.
Straub needs to pay the lien within 90 days “or face the prospect of having to pay legal fees associated with the case.
Straub purchased the bankrupt Revel casino hotel in 2015, about six months after the financially struggling property closed its doors for the second time in two years, and subsequently rebranded it as TEN.
Chris Howard, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, was quoted saying that “Polo North refused to pay its SID assessment and, ultimately, failed to comply with a court order compelling payment.”
Polo North previously filed a suit against the state agency, stating that the company shouldn’t have to apply for a license because it is leasing the casino to a third party vendor. The company has also yet to pay the improvement district fees for 2016 and 2017, which the ruling did not address.
The ruling comes as Straub announced that he would not meet a self-imposed deadline to open TEN on June 15 because he’s still waiting to open a casino on the property. The developer still needs a New Jersey gaming license if he wants to reopen the facility with a casino component.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission told Straub in January that wouldn’t receive an exemption from the state’s casino licensure requirements because the commission “would turn the Casino Control Act on its head” if it bent the rules for him, but the developer has since appealed that ruling. Straub said he is waiting on the court’s decision for his petition.
David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, previously said that the likelihood of TEN opening as a casino was “not even remotely imminent at this time.”
