A Toronto-based investment company has abandoned its plan to buy the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, dealing yet another serious blow to the state’s beleaguered gaming industry.
Brookfield Property Partners said in an email late Wednesday it was dropping its winning US$110 million auction bid to acquire the property developed in 2012 for US$2.4 billion and shuttered in September.
Bloomberg cited sources who said Brookfield, which owns the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, dropped the deal in part because it was unable to win a reduction in electricity payments. Revel had a contract to purchase power and other utility services for US$3 million a month from ACR Energy Partners.
The casino-resort business in Atlantic City has been on the decline with multiple closures and now faces greater competition from other markets. Just this week, Cordish Cos. and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment won a license to open a casino in nearby Philadelphia.
The Trump Taj Mahal might close December 12 unless the union drops its appeal of a bankruptcy court ruling that let the casino terminate the union contract. It would become the fifth Atlantic City casino to close this year.