“Looks like we’re going to New Jersey to visit an accounting firm. That’s a shitty day.” –Terry Hoitz in The Other Guys
Ok, now I readily admit that this article has nothing to do with an accounting firm, but seeing as I am about to encourage everyone to visit New Jersey on June 28th, I couldn’t help but think of that quote and laugh. Oh, how I laughed. According to a report from the Press of Atlantic City, the Ocean Resort Casino is setting its sights on a June 28th grand opening. This is not only significant because it’s the grand opening of the Ocean Resort Casino (hello SEO), but also because it is the exact date when the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will open. Methinks the Boardwalk is going to be rockin’ that day. Seriously, it might be a lot of fun.
The Press of Atlantic City was unable to officially confirm the target date, only hearing in an e-mail from Ocean CEO Frank Leone, “The Ocean Resort Casino Team is committed to opening this summer and looks forward to announcing its highly anticipated opening date soon.”
The June 28th date was taken from signed employment agreements which showed a work start date of June 11th and “anticipated” opening date of June 28th. Several employees provided the same documents to the Press.
One possible roadblock is that the Ocean Resort Casino has not actually been granted a license yet from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. There are no hearings on the schedule and the Division of Gaming Enforcement has not issued a report. That said, the grand opening date is two months out so one would think that since the regulatory agencies have got to be in the process of reviewing the licensing application that it is fully possible a license could be coming soon. Assuming the dates on the employment agreements are valid, it would be odd if Ocean Resort Casino didn’t know that everything would be in place before June 28th.
Ocean Resort Casino is the former Revel, the gaudy $2.4 billion property that was supposed to rival the Borgata. It opened in April 2012 and was a spectacular failure, closing in September 2014. Shortly thereafter, it went through a screwy auction process in which Brookfield US Holdings won a bankruptcy auction for the Revel for just $110 million. The sale fell through in January 2015 and Glenn Straub, head of Polo North Country Club, was awarded the Revel by a bankruptcy judge for his original bid of $95.4 million. The Revel then cancelled that deal in February and then re-engaged in talks with Straub in April only to sell it to him for just $82 million.
Straub renamed the property TEN and in June 2016, Straub said he was going to reopen it with a small casino and loads of entertainment facilities, but it never reopened.
In January of this year, Bruce Deifik, the founder of Integrated Properties in Denver, bought Revel/TEN for $200 million with the full intention of reopening it this summer.