In New Jersey, rumors that the shuttered TEN Atlantic City will soon be sold in advance of re-opening next year have grown stronger following a local report that the supposed new owner has already applied for a casino license.
Monday saw The Press of Atlantic City report that an entity known as AC Ocean Walk LLC had secretly agreed a deal in October to buy the 6.3 million sq ft TEN Atlantic City for $200 million. The newspaper revealed yesterday that the proposed new owner subsequently handed over a non-refundable $100,000 casino license application fee to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Previously known as the Revel Casino Hotel Atlantic City before undergoing a 2016 name change, TEN Atlantic City cost some $2.4 billion to build in 2012 but struggled to fill its 1,399 rooms and was closed in September of 2014 after filing for a second round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. Florida real estate concern Polo North Country Club Incorporated, which is controlled by billionaire businessman Glenn Straub, later spent $82 million to buy the derelict property but has since missed several re-opening deadlines.
The Press of Atlantic City previously reported that AC Ocean Walk LLC is managed by a firm called Ten RE ACNJ via Colorado businessman Bruce Deifik and has plans to re-open TEN Atlantic City as soon as May after spending some $175 7BALL million on renovations. It purportedly hopes the revitalized Boardwalk venue will offer a fully-functional 7,000-space parking garage and around 55,000 sq ft of retail space alongside a casino with some 2,000 slots alongside 100 gaming tables.
However, the newspaper reported that the future of the Atlantic City property continues to remain uncertain as Straub has continually denied that any such sale has been agreed. The man behind the luxury Palm Beach Polo, Golf and Country Club in Florida even purportedly told The Associated Press news service as recently as Monday that ‘there is no deal’.
“If someone has a check, I do sell assets,” Straub reportedly told the news service. “We’re not stopping anybody from bringing a check in. If you want to buy it, come in and we’ll check you out. But nobody has.”