The jokes about the failed Revel casino have abounded since the property abruptly closed in September 2014. The poor design and even worse operations doomed the property from the start, until the .5 billion property was sold for a pittance— million.
But the new owner has a better idea. He wants to rename the property Ten. And the jokes started again. “The number of years until it finally opens.” “The number of days it will stay open.” “The number of people who will visit.”
Adding to the jokes, the new owner Glenn Straub’s previous declared purposes for the property were laughable: A “genius” academy for people free, white and 21; a rope-climbing, bike-racing, polo-playing, water park; a treatment center for holistic medicine—he even suggested that the government could relocate 3,500 Syrian refugees to Revel. But even his plan to simply open a hotel failed to materialize in June of this year when he neglected to get a certificate of occupancy or any of the liquor licenses he would need.
In the meantime, he battled with the company that supplied electricity to Revel and eventually bought it out. He feuded with the city when they demanded that he maintain fire suppression systems and other critical emergency services. And just last month, he went on a tirade against the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) when it said it needed to approve the landscaping at the property, which has largely been removed by Straub.
So it’s no wonder that Straub’s latest announcement has been taken with more than a grain of salt. At a follow-up meeting last week, the CRDA decided not to press a claim that Revel owed a $100,000 assessment fee to the agency, incurred prior to Straub’s ownership, rather to let the courts decide if Straub was liable. Straub came to the meeting with a landscaping plan and the CRDA finally granted his application to move forward with Ten.
Ten is the ultimate measure of a person or a place, according to Straub, who compared it to the Bo Derek movie of the same name popular in the 1980s. Ten will open its doors in the first quarter of 2017, he says, operated by a new management firm, with Robert Landino, a Hartford, Connecticut businessman, as CEO.
“It’s what’s next in Atlantic City,” said Landino in a press release. “We are thrilled to share our brand with the public and to introduce a new era of resort and entertainment. TEN joined with our infinity logo represents our mission to provide the highest-rated amenities and our daily endeavor to offer an infinitely perfect escape for our guests, families and businesses.”
According to the release, the hotel will open with a casino, setting up Straub’s next battle with the Division of Gaming Enforcement, which previously decided he required a gaming license of some elevated level, even though Straub says he was only leasing out the casino. But sources tell GGB News that Straub would share in the profits from the casino, which would force him to apply for and be granted a casino operators license, an expensive and lengthy process.
Landino would certainly require a license. He has no casino background, but is the CEO of Centerplan, a company that specializes in development and re-development of real estate throughout the northeast.
He’s currently involved in a lawsuit in Hartford, where Centerplan developed a baseball stadium that never opened, forcing the minor league Hartford team to play its entire season on the road.
The CFO for Ten is the same as it had been for Revel, Allen Greenstein, who says his history with the project will be a positive.
“I know what works and what did not, and would not have returned if not for Ten’s strong forecasted financial model and all-star executive team,” Greenstein said. “It is the most spectacular resort that I have seen in my career and I am determined to make it a success.”
But most analysts agree another casino is not what Atlantic City needs right now. The closing of four casinos in 2014, and the looming shuttering of Trump Taj Mahal in October, has actually made the industry healthy. Profits are up, and the remaining casinos are somewhat stable—at least before a possible North Jersey casino expansion is decided in November. Another competitor on the Boardwalk could again throw the industry into a downturn and result in further closures.
But the opening of a Ten casino could be far off if indeed Straub must be licensed and a deal with Local 54, Atlantic City’s culinary union, is to be arranged. Local 54 played a major role in the failure of Revel when it tried to force Revel management to unionize its tenants, something Revel management refused to do.
