Brookfield to give Revel a new lease on life

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. A Canadian asset management company won a bankruptcy court auction for the failed Revel casino hotel in Atlantic City on Wednesday and plans to reopen it as a casino.

Toronto-based Brookfield US Holdings LLC told The Associated Press on Wednesday it plans to operate the Boardwalk property as a casino hotel, adding it to casinos it owns in Las Vegas and the Bahamas.

It submitted a bid of $110 million US in an auction that began Tuesday morning and lasted until early Wednesday. An opposing bidder, Florida developer Glenn Straub, was selected as the backup bidder in case the Brookfield bid did not close on the deal.

“Revel is a brand-new trophy asset on the beachfront, which we are acquiring at a substantial discount to replacement cost,” said Andrew Willis, a spokesman for Brookfield Asset Management, the parent company of the firm that won the auction. “We are excited about owning the newest and highest quality asset in Atlantic City at such an attractive basis. This acquisition is consistent with Brookfield’s history of contrarian investing and always on a value basis.”

He said the company is not ready to reveal specific business plans for Revel — or even whether they will still call it Revel — but confirmed the plan to operate it as a casinohotel.

“With our ownership of the Hard Rock in Las Vegas and the Atlantis Paradise Island in Bahamas, we have expertise underwriting and operating these types of multi-faceted assets,” he said. “We anticipate material synergies between these three high-quality properties.”