Florida Developer Challenges Revel Auction

Glenn Straub, who lost in a bankruptcy auction for the closed Revel casino in Atlantic City, has appealed the auction result. The property went to Brookfield Asset Management for $110 million. Straub says he wasn’t given required information about competing bids during the auction.

Glenn Straub, a Florida-based developer who has outlined some wild plans for the closed Revel casino in Atlantic City, has appealed a bankruptcy auction result which left him the loser in the bidding for the .4 billion property.

Brookfield Asset management—which operates the Hard Rock casino in Las Vegas and the Atlantis Paradise Island casino in the Bahamas through Brookfield Properties—won the auction and is scheduled to buy the property for $110 million.

Straub made the initial bid for the casino at $90 million, but lost in the bidding with Brookfield after an all-night session. He has objected to the way the auction was conducted saying Revel officials didn’t give him promised information about competing bids.

He has also objected to the auction being conducted in an all-night session and says Brookfield’s bid came after a specified deadline. Straub testified at the hearing when the Brookfield purchase was finalized, but did not formally appeal then.

The Press of Atlantic City reported that attorneys for Straub have now filed an appeal in bankruptcy court, but no word on a possible hearing on that appeal has been announced.

Straub has outlined a number of plans for the former casino—including possibly keeping a casino on site—but has raised some eyebrows by proposing a “genius academy and university on the site.

Brookfield has said they will keep the property a casino hotel, but have not outlined specifics.