By Michael Hill
Correspondent
Where else in America can you get a deal on a property like Revel as Florida developer Glenn Straub is getting? Revel cost about $381 per square foot to build. Straub’s buying it for $13 per square foot.
What will he do with Revel’s 6.3 million square feet?
One of his attorneys says Straub is keeping his plans close to his vest because there are deals to be worked out, but he does intend to have it open this summer.
And that’s what some tenants want to hear.
“Everything has been kept in great condition,” said Garces Restaurant Group Attorney Rob Keddie.
Keddie just looked over the four Garces Group-owned restaurants he represents in Revel. They employed 250 to 300 workers.
It’s to his advantage if he wants to open this soon to have restaurants ready to go? “That’s our exact position. If he wants to have this open for the summer we have a ready-made solution for him inside,” Keddie said.
Keddie says the tenants’ court battle with Straub is about the tenants protecting their leases.
“And yesterday, the debtor and Mr. Straub consented that our leases in our possession will pass through a sale and will continue to exist. So we’re ready to get into our spaces and get to work,” Keddie said.
“He’s obviously is not your garden variety developer,” said Dr. Israel Posner.
Posner is the executive director of the Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University. Posner says the recent trend of individuals acquiring Atlantic City casinos harkens to an era when individuals owned the casinos before Wall Street firms took over. Posner says it’s back to the future and an advantage for Atlantic City.
“Glenn Straub is in that same spirit of the individual entrepreneurs who can move very quickly with their ideas because they don’t have boards of trustees. They’re not Wall Street,” Posner said.
Posner watches Atlantic City developments like a hawk. He says he thinks in 10 years we’ll see 2015 as when Atlantic City hit bottom, marking the beginning of its rebirth.
How does what Straub has planned for Revel factor into that equation?
“Obviously he’s not predictable. Atlantic City was always something that was unusual. That’s why people came here. There were unusual acts. I’m not saying that Mr. Straub is equivalent to the diving horse, but Atlantic City has a history of building its success on the unexpected,” Posner said.