The Revel Casino Hotel is once again left without a buyer after a company specified deadline for real estate developer Glen Straub to close the $95.4 million deal came and passed without a resolution.
According to papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Camden (New Jersey), Revel indicated that it had done all it can to close the sale on Straub’s terms, but the developer had “failed to cooperate and even actively opposed the sale at times.”
If the back-and-forth between Revel and Straub didn’t complicate the sale enough, a recent string of last-minute court rulings made by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia last Friday and later on, by Judge Jerome Simandle of the U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J. certainly didn’t help either. In a sudden and surprising move over the weekend that swept over Revel’s transaction with Straub, the higher courts that basically halted the sale to give the hotel’s tenants the chance to have their appeals heard in court.
The 11th hour court rulings prompted Straub to seek a Feb. 28 extension to close the sale, arguing through his lawyers that it didn’t want to buy anything that still has so many legal issues hanging over it. What’s clear is that the developer isn’t willing to buy the property without these issues being resolved, telling the Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t plan to close the deal until “[they] hear our case surrounding the legal issues.
Revel, though, isn’t backing down and has made it clear that it’s planning to move on to Plan C, D, E, or F after Straub’s failure to meet the imposed deadline. The “purported justifications for failing to timely close under the purchase agreement lacks any support under such agreement,” lawyers for Revel said in court papers.
As far as what those plans are, it’s still unclear how Revel will proceed, although the company has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns to turn over Straub’s $10 million deposit that’s currently held in escrow.
Strobe is unlikely to see his $10 million deposit back, but that’s an issue for another time. What’s important now is what Judge Burns will say at the hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning and whether she grants Straub’s request to extend the deadline or give Revel the nod to officially terminate the sale.