The operators of independent restaurants and bars at the closed Revel Atlantic City are asking a court to allow them to remove inventory, equipment and a substantial amount of booze from the property without interference from new Revel owner Glenn Straub.
Straub, on the other hand, maintains that the businesses are helping themselves to items that may not belong to them.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, bankruptcy-court papers filed earlier this month show the restaurants and the Florida-based developer are fighting over the inventory.
Straub took control of the property almost a year ago, but bankruptcy proceedings did not answer the questions of whether the independently run businesses at the former casino could remain on the property when the site is re-opened. That battle is still playing out in the courts.
But the battle over the inventory is a new twist. In an emergency motion filed with the bankruptcy court, the restaurants accused Mr. Straub, through his Polo North Country Club Inc., of exacting “increasingly burdensome, time-consuming, expensive and unmerited demands and conditions.”
The tenants say Straub has demanded advanced notice from them to visit the Revel site and dictated terms for any property left inside the resort. According to court papers, Mr. Straub has also suggested that items left behind may actually belong to him, the Journal’s report said.
“They’ve been hauling stuff out of here for I don’t know how long, and now they want to take things that are not theirs,” Mr. Straub told the paper.
Businesses at Revel paid $3.3 million for the right to operate at the property, court papers show. In addition to $240,000 in liquor, the restaurants want access to remove tableware and other restaurant equipment—pots, pans, bowls and cooking appliances.
“They can have their pots and pans,” Mr. Straub told the Journal.
