Hard Rock paid 50M for Trump Taj, report says

Eric Strauss//May 9, 2017

Hard Rock International announced plans to sink $375 million into the former Trump Taj Mahal hotel casino it purchased earlier this year, and no wonder it had the money: Hard Rock bought the Atlantic City icon for a mere $50 million, according to a published report.The Associated Press said Tuesday that Hard Rock acquired the property from billionaire Carl Icahn for essentially 4 cents on the dollar compared to the $1.2 billion construction price. Donald Trump, now president of the United States, built the casino in 1990, dubbing it the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Icahn acquired the casino when he bought Trump Entertainment Resorts out of bankruptcy in 2016; he closed the Taj Mahal in October after a labor strike, claiming he lost $350 million on it.

Icahn still owns the Trump Plaza, which closed in 2014.

Hard Rock hopes to overhaul the casino in time for a summer 2018 reopening, it has said.