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No Bid: Revel Casino To Close After No Buyer Emerges For Twice Bankrupt Property
Anyone desperate to find clues to the "great American recovery" is strongly urged to stay away from Atlantic City, where shortly after the Revel hotel and casino filed for its second bankruptcy in 16 months, the struggling property announced it would shutter its doors for one final time in September, when not a single qualified buyer emerged during the bankruptcy auction. The good news: there will not be a Chapter 33 for the doomed from the beginning property. The bad news: the DOL will have to find a major seasonal adjustment to absorb the 3,100 jobs that were just lost. It also means that Atlantic City is set to close the year with 25% fewer casinos than it started with, following the shuttering of three other properties including the Showboat and Trump Plaza.
Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel will shut down next month after failing to find a buyer in bankruptcy court, company officials announced Tuesday
The company said it will close its doors on Sept. 10. The move comes two years after the $2.4 billion casino opened. It has never turned a profit. The closure will mean the loss of more than 3,100 jobs.
The casino was due to be sold at a bankruptcy court auction last week, but that was postponed until Thursday to allow casino officials to study bids that were received. But after Revel's board met on Monday, the decision was made to shutter the iconic glass-covered casino at the north end of the Boardwalk.
The devastation to New Jersey in one sentence: "Since 2006, when the first Pennsylvania casino opened, Atlantic City's casino revenue has fallen from $5.2 billion to $2.86 billion last year."
As for the now defunct Revel, it was all about being at the wrong time, and the wrong place:
Revel has ranked near the bottom of Atlantic City's casinos in terms of the amount of money won from gamblers since the day it opened. Its original owners envisioned it as a luxury resort that just happened to have a casino, and eschewed many staples of casino culture, including a buffet and bus trips for day-trippers. But that strategy — as well as the only overall smoking ban in Atlantic City — turned off customers, and Revel filed for bankruptcy in 2013, a little over a year after opening.
But despite some improvement, Revel's finances never recovered enough, and it filed for bankruptcy a second time in June, warning that it would close if a suitable buyer could not be found.
Revel's most recent Chapter 11 filing listed assets of $486.9 million and liabilities of $476.1 million
Finally, if anyone wants to visit Atlantic City, better do it sooner than later before the city becomes a ghost town: Revel will be the second of four Atlantic City casinos to shut down this year as the Atlantic City gambling market continues to crumble. The city started this year with 12 casinos. The Showboat will close on Aug. 31, and Trump Plaza is closing Sept. 16.
Shortly thereafter all other casinos will follow suit for one simple reason: they all rely on disposable consumer income, which contrary to the endless propaganda, there is none.
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Bulldoze it bitchez. Plant some F'n trees.
Never liked Revel. It was flawed from the beginning. Too cramped.
Showboat got the ax earlier this year. Sad.
Bye bye AC, it was fun while it lasted.
"Shortly thereafter all other casinos will follow suit for one simple reason: they all rely on disposable consumer income"
fortunately, our industry does not suffer from that vulnerability
hugs,
commissioners of MLB, NBA, NFL
"...the decision was made to shutter the iconic glass-covered casino..."
Something reaches "iconic" status after only a few short years in existence?
It's in New Jersey, the armpit of America.... what else can you say?
Spoken like a true New Yorker.
to bad they dont have the bdc..baltimore devolopment corp..., were all our big spenders get tax subsidise backing their loans...guess what happens when they win?....now guess what happens when they lose?... what do you think happens more often?
The governement should buy it and turn it into an illegal immigrant housing community. And the illegals should be given a gambling stipend on top of all of their other benefits. Then, you will see the economy roar back!
Bulldoze it bitchez.
I hear failed mobsters make good fertilizer for trees.
O-Peach-Me's wealth redistribution and Cloward-Piven has multiple side effects. Case in point.
Hard to believe America fell for this azzhat. Deception is the world of today. Be careful when you bend over to pick up that $10 on the ground. It comes with 32 regulations.
Pushin up daisies.
Whores, Ugly Buildings and Politicians all become respectable if they last long enough..
From the movie Chinatown...
Someone will buy it, mark my words...it's too nice of a property... showboat is a dump they should demolish ala Sands, ditto for Trump Plaza and maybe Resorts...then they will have a managable number of casinos
Revel mgmt. made some really dumb decisions which can be fixed, ie "no smoking" anywhere on the property - wtf?, not enough high roller rooms etc.
have any of you ZH bashers actually been there?
AC is a fun town, great restaurants, beach, you can see a top band in a small venue ... unless you're a complete pussy, "oh i might get mugged if I walk down the wrong street, and theres whores and drugs everywhere!"
same type that would prefer NYC now, vs. pre-Ghouliani...
AC is a fun town if you live nearby. The denizens of EHT cannot support AC however. The casino/mall restaurants are the same as any nearby city. There are only a handful of great non-casino restaurants (I love the Knife and Fork). There are beaches up and down the coast (obviously).
AC cast its lot as a resort town - which btw is mutually exclusive of "unless you're a complete pussy, 'oh i might get mugged if I walk down the wrong street, and theres whores and drugs everywhere!'" -- and failed. Revel is now the number one example of this. While the weekends are packed and from what I can tell the casinos are ghost towns M-Th, yet the model is now based on full week business.
I have a few personal and familial interests in the success of AC. I am not hopeful. It did not turn itself around in the hey-day of the casinos, why would it turn itself around now?
(I did not junk you btw)
I'm not really hopeful either, but the bashing is ridiculous... (there are at least 10 restaurants in the area (outside of the casinos) that I would highly recommend, and I lived in NYC for 20+ yrs...
met with the mayor last week, at least he is pro-business and has some interesting plans/ideas that will take a couple years to pan out... cleaning up the riff-raff, beach, etc.... probably too late for me, unfortunately ...
a white, gay REPUBLICAN mayor in AC? I'm surprised anyone in the entrenched Democratic political system would even have an assistant take his phone call. NJ local/state politics is a strange animal.
Obozo will house a lot of illegals there next.
Better yet, give it to the Indians. They make money on the casinos by cutting out the taxman. oops... gov Christy won't give up his cut!
Gambling is evil anyway. Good thing overall.
Yeah! If you want to gamble against the odds with your life savings go to Wall Street like everyone is forced to do!
Evil is an intention, not a thing. Gaming is only evil if you abuse it, just like everything else in life.
Can someone with some knowledge of these things explain why they can't just convert the 3,000 rooms to condos? With minimal design changes, they could sell the entire building in a week at fire sale prices. Creditors(some anyway) are paid back and the building is put to good use. I don't like Atlantic City, but I would buy one in a second if the price was right. They would close the casino area and repurpose it. Keep some of the shops and restaurants open for the residents. Please explain why this isn't even an option?
You would need to buy a bulletproof auto to visit the grocery store. Think of a boardwalk surrounded by North Philly.
It would be Pruitt-Igoe on the waterfront.
Property taxes would kill you ....Theyare looking at a 47% increase ..http://www.nj.com/south/index.ssf/2014/03/atlantic_city_considering_47-p...
Not a bad idea in theory.
But when was the last time you visited this shithole?
Gangs and punks are taking over. Nobody in their right mind is moving anywhere close.
Valet the car and going straight to the casino and not dare leaving is not what a lot of 'folk' would consider a good time.
And in my business, AC G.O.'s are getting cheap (bonds). That's the 1st sign.
Probably because thy don't have kitchens and aren't big enough overall to qualify as a residence. How long would you want to live in even the nicest hotel you ever stayed at?
I hear what you are saying about room size, but the Jersey shore has thousands of shitty little former motel condos that sell for $250,000. To have a cheap little place to visit on the weekends and occasionally when a good band or comedian is in town would be nice. But it would only work if the units were dirt cheap.
Because .gov wants their cut of the gambling money. They'll get another rube they can milk in there shortly.
A huge condo with a big chowhall.. yeah that sounds nice.
..wonder how the cruise industry will do with an ebola scared-shitless public, crowded much?- don't cough on the salad bar please.
'A huge condo with a big chowhall.'
Hmmm….. end Social security and warehouse senior citizens in old casinos…. And old shopping malls.
The first cruise that becomes an Ebola death ship will f'n kill the industry.
Put a bronze bull out front and rename it Wall Street. WS is the one casino still full and there the house always wins.
The smart money never bids in a reorganization bankruptcy. They big in the liquidation bankruptcy.
RE
Bingo.
Thing is, Revel is a beautiful casino. The problem is that consumers, who are strapped for cash, would rather go locally to gamble (PA/MD), or when they do the big casino destinations, they'd prefer spots like Las Vegas where you can do more and its warmer. You also can't smoke in Revel, which while good for the casual casino consumer, that does NOT fit the type of guy (*cough*ASIAN*cough*) who will come in an plunk down $2k+ on craps and blackjack tables.
Plus you'll also be more likely to get robbed than in AC, which in official terms, is now what we call a "shithole".
Borgata is doing OK; because Borgata is away from Broadway. Broadway is what is dying, not just the casinos.
That's the truth. You stray 10 seconds from the boardwalk or the main entrance from any of those casino's and it's over for you.
There is usually one homicide in a casino parking garage per year as well. so really the rule is drive in, valet, drive out quickly.
Better yet, don't drive in at all.
Good point Fonz, they're roasting human flesh for dinner 200 feet from
the front entrance.
LOL, first you will be pick-pocketed by a nasty whore, then a crackhead will tackle you to the ground, then you will be finished off by homie brown cuz he hate whitey. before you even pass "GO"
Degenerate gamblers are the life blood of any casino and they do not care where they gamble. AC, in its current form, was toast the second broke states started allowing casinos to pop up. Pinnacle saw the writing on the wall after buying the Sands and hightailed it out of town.
Revel even went a step further and told the degenerate gamblers that they were not welcome there.
Yeah, big casinos going into Baltimore and DC (National Harbor).
re: Shizzmoney - wtf is "Broadway"... no such street in AC - are you trying to say "boardwalk" in bad english?
have you even been to AC, other than maybe the Pai-Gow tables at Borgata then back to the bus?
Chris Christie's Folly - he should have bullied them into staying open
weird... I thought when people are broke they went gambling...
I this another green shoot?
The solution to this problem is elementary. They should just build a bigger casino so that more people can visit and gamble. If it is big enough, at some point their revenue will exceed their costs. Come on people, I can't do everything.
bernake is that you?
Close but no cigar....it has to be Krugman
"Look at the big brain on Brad." - Pulp Fiction :)
"....when not a single qualified buyer emerged during the bankruptcy auction."
Time to consider unqualified buyers. I'm sure a $100B Fed loan will make me look very qualified....along with some red lipstick for my pig.
They are doing exactly that in the housing and automobile market. It's all driven by more bad debt because that's the only kind of borrower there is.
A casino with no buffet, no bus trips for the silverheads and no smoking allowed .. ??
These idiots deserved to die !
I likes to gamble with my SSDI check.
Yonkers Raceway and the other NY tracks with casinos are known as 'recycling centers' - wher all the retirees go to blow their SS checks. The state gives and the state takes back.
Cuomo and damn nesr every other politician thinks that Casinos are eassy revenue sources..... BWHAAAAAAAAAA How many places can chase after fewer and fewer 'disposable' dollars?
Pretty pathtic when you see who's losing money at the slots in most of these places - those that can't afford to lose ANY money.
a symptom of the moral and ethical bankruptcy of our society.... and the stupidity of those that believe in easy riches
I saw statistics on the AZ casinos and up 90% of the money was SS checks. How they came up with those numbers is beyond me (lies, damn lies, and statistics), but those place do appear to be full of greyhairs.
The NY track casinos blow donkey balls, there are no table games and the crowd is, ehh so/so. They are really just glorified slot machine arcades. Now if the Shinecocks get there act together and get a full blown casino out in the Hamptons or close to it then watch out. Unforchantly they as a tribe tend to have the problem of not having experinced buisness men to help them get organized. Maybe a circus tent with some armed security to start with and some table games will get them started?
Being from the Philly area, I can tell you that the proliferation of casinos around the metro area has sucked a lot of money out of Atlantic City casinos.
Used to be you had two main choices- AC and Vegas. Now casinos are everywhere, thrown up by municipalities desperate for revenue and jobs within their taxing/voting jurisdiction (although the employees working in them are RARELY from the community in which the casino resides). Online gambling is eating all of them, slowly, one bite at a time.
WTF do seniors need to go to a crowded casino for and gamble away their SSI check when there's a giant invisible casino in the sky that any E-Trade baby can play in from the comfort of their own homes?
It's nice to get out of the house every once in a while.
Archaeological periods ...
Stone age
Bronze age
Iron age
Industrial age
Space age
Computer age
Gambling age
... what comes next? Stone age?
Extinction.
".. what comes next? Stone age?"
Spot on!
Albert Einstein said it: I dont know what WWIII will be fought with, but I do know WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Back to the future!
Speaking of casinos, why can I not get a Silver price this morning ????
Did I miss something while I was out ????
Kitco's calling it at 19.955
The simple fact is the worst run casino in A C could run profitatably so long as it has no competition in the area! Now you can gamble in numerous (safe) casino establishments all within 100 miles of AC. And yes, it is a shithole of epidemic proportions!
It also means that Atlantic City is set to close the year with 25% fewer casinos than it started with
Actually, AC will be closing the year with 33% fewer casinos than what it started with. They started with twelve and will end with eight. Those kaput:
Atlantic Club, Revel, Trump Plaza and Showboat.
"Actually, AC will be closing the year with 33% fewer casinos than what it started with. They started with twelve and will end with eight"
Let's see...
12-4=8.
8/12 = 3/4 = 0.75 = 75%
100% - 25% (or 1/4 or 4/12) = 75%, or 25% fewer (or less than what you started with).
In the old days, you had to complete a math problem before you could post. They've done away with that now... Sad.
8/12 = 2/3
8/12=4/6=2/3
Eureka.
I stand corrected. Did I mention that I was a product of public schools and easily distracted by media suggestion?
well you could last share what you are smoking
Snake eyes.
A luxury resort in a shithole, great idea!!
shit. i knew i shouldnt have slept in late today....my $3 bid would have taken it
On an ironic note, you know you are nearing the end of a Monopoly game when you are mortgaging your hotels on Boardwalk.
I estimate that only a third of the gamblers in MD make the trip up to AC that use to. Too many closer alternatives. That, reservation casinos, and Internet gambling were sapping too much from the Vegas/AC axis.
How do you lose when you have motels on Boardwalk???!! Lol
http://monopoly-game.net/Classic_Monopoly_Rules.html
Read the rules about mortgages.
The Jersey Comeback - Chris Christie
Yeah. "Jersey Strong" And one cannot protect themselves with current shit gun laws.
1%, by and large , aren't gamblers. whose left with a lot of dicretionary to blow?
I'll buy it for scrap value, after demo costs of course
Still the beach is nice, c'mon.
AC is a shithole...........
That's ok- the Birth/Death Model will open 5 new casinos in Atlantic City this Fall.
Depression times and casinos not a mix. But it's garbage anyway and we should not think one can gamble their way to prosperity. Fu-kin racket like most anything else. People walkin around towing breathing tanks and still puffin, others signing up to be put on a exclusion list as they are rock bottom and on and on. Shit hole AC will go back to being Chicken Bone Beach.
Maybe they could crash a couple of hijacked planes into the casino tower.
Blame ISIS, or Iran, or Putin. And collect a couple billion.
This town has all the makings of an Olympic host city
Interestingly, if you go to Revel website to book a room, they are fully booked... for ever.
kind of looks like the NASDAQ....maybe hedgefund guy could buy it as a house
i've been there. beautiful property a real work of art. one of the big problems is everything is premium priced from the restaurants to a bottle of water. once you get fleeced on paying top dollar for everything you don't feel like taking what remains of your cash and blow it on gambling.
The way casinos make money is by luring people in with free shit, and then the people feel like "o my pocket isn't empty, let me gamble".
Free Drinks, Free Parking, Free Membership, Free Match Play, Free Room, comps etc.
If your casino doesn't make people feel like they are buying stuff while gambling you are going to lose money.
Revels entire business model was based on the hope and dream that some big shot was gona come in and gamble a fortune away, and lets face it, very few bigshots got where they are by playing stupid.
10$ bottle of water, 20$ shots and 1000$ rooms isn't going to lure in many customers/gamblers, quite frankly if a Casino charged me 10$ for water, I would feel offended.
I mean here I am gambling 100s and you have the nerve to charge me 10$ for water? Go $%%%% urself.
Re. jobs... I read that NII Holdings (nasdaq HIHD) is also closing. The old Nortel. More job loss.
As much as I liked AC as a kid going down there and hate to see it leave, I honestly don't think it’s dying, it's coming to a new equilibrium with the new PA casinos opening up. These jokers thought they could turn this place into a "destination" resort. This place could probably turn a profit if they didn't have a huge debt burden and now that several older casinos are closing. It'll be back open once the banks finish fighting over the scraps of the terrible business plan.
It didn’t help that the “folks” never had a dedicated rail line from NYC there without having to go through Philly first. I’ve taken that route too many times. Too many.
The really big money is made in buying the collapses, and it’s indeed coming to a new equilibrium now. The debt was the driver of growth, and yield starved investors were chasing yields without regard to market risk, etc. This is what happens – overleverage.
As a kid, I spent many a summer in AC roaming the casion-free boardwalk, biking on it, swimming in the Atlantic. This was the late 60's / early 70's time period. Late 70's my parents decided to move to Cakifornia. After seeing the Pacific, decided never ever to set foot in the Atlantic again. Have not been back to AC since like 1975. My mother had a relative that lived two blocks away from the boardwalk, and us kids got to spend many a summer there. It was great, I am sorry to see what AC has tuned into.
Now I live in Oklahoma and will probably never see either ocean again. What with the Pacific becoming a radioactive wasteland, and the Atlantic City area a high crime zone, I suppose I should consider myself lucky. ;-)
Three nice resort casinos that can house the illegal immigrants!
If someone bought Revel and could afford to hold it for say 4 ~ 5 years, and they transitioned it from a bullshit club into a mid-range casino, it would do well in 7 years or so.
But its cheaper to just build a new casino in 5 years or to wait for the fire sale.
Atlantic City is a fucing shithole... Go get your wallet stolen....
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