Florida developer Glenn Straub is picking another fight with New Jersey over his Ten property in Atlantic City, formerly the closed Revel casino.
Straub told the Press of Atlantic City he will not make payments due on the former casino under the state’s payment in lieu of taxes schedule for resort casinos. Straub said he feels the closed casino is exempt from the tax payment.
“We are not going to pay them,” Straub said.
Under the PILOT plan, all city casinos must pay a share of $120 million this year instead of property taxes.
Straub told the paper that the Revel has a deed restriction on it from the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority that bars casino gaming at the property. The restriction came about due to a $20 million authority loan to the property under its former owners.
An authority spokesperson told the paper, however, that the loan was settled under the property’s former bankruptcy proceedings and the restriction no longer applies. Straub has also been talking about leasing space at the property to a casino company, but never before mentioned the restriction.
However, he told the Press that the authority had tried to get the $20 million from his company Polo North Country Club Inc.
“They put a deed restriction on that says if the property was ever sold that the new people, meaning us, would have to sign up for the $20 million,” Straub said. “We didn’t because it’s not our bill.”
Straub is also fighting the state over whether he needs a full casino license to lease casino space at the property. Straub maintains he doesn’t while the state has ruled he does.
The state’s Department of Community Affairs recently announced it had received estimated first quarter PILOT payments from all the casinos “except one,” the Press reported. The Feb. 16 statement did not name TEN.
Straub said he wants to appeal his property’s tax bill.
“We’ve been shut down now for three years,” he told the Press. “As an abandoned building, we want the value of an abandoned building, not the value of a casino hotel.”
