Judge approves Revel’s 110M sale to Canadian company

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A bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of the shuttered Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City to a Canadian asset management firm for $110 million.The casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build, will be sold to Brookfield Property Partners and is reportedly on a path to reopening as a gaming hall. The approval by Judge Gloria Burns comes despite the protests of losing bidder Glenn Straub, a Florida developer who made an opening $90 million bid and criticized the auction process.

“We are excited by the decision of the court to recognize Brookfield Property Partners as the winning bidder of the Revel assets,” Revel President Scott Kreeger said in a prepared statement. “We conducted a comprehensive sale process that maximized the value to the estate.”

He added: “Brookfield is a highly regarded company with extensive gaming experience. Their experience would give Revel a strong new owner with whom to chart a new course for success.”

RELATED: $110M bid wins Revel bankruptcy auction for Canadian firm

Brookfield, which owns the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and Atlantis in the Bahamas, was picked as the winning bidder last week after an all-night bankruptcy auction run by Revel’s attorneys. Straub later claimed Revel’s attorneys reneged on a promise to allow him to review opposing bids before the end of the auction, and that he was not given enough time to make a counteroffer when Brookfield made its last bid in the early morning.

In response to a formal objection filed by Straub this week, Revel’s attorneys called his claims “entirely baseless” and called him “nothing more than disgruntled losing bidder.”

Aside from ruling the auction had been run properly, Burns set an Oct. 20 hearing date for several unresolved legal issues in the case, the Associated Press reported.

Revel closed last month after filing for bankruptcy for the second time since opening in spring 2012, without ever turning a profit. It was one of four Atlantic City casinos to close this year, joining the Atlantic Club, Showboat and Trump Plaza, while the Trump Taj Mahal could close next month if its parent company fails resolved its own financial woes.

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