Less debt and list of gamblers are key for new Revel owner

Brookfield Asset Management, which seemingly came out of nowhere to win the bankruptcy auction for Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel, will have two key advantages over the property's current owners.

First, the Toronto real estate investment firm with $200 billion in assets will pay $110 million, just 4.5 percent of the $2.4 billion cost of building the soon-to-be-former Revel. That means debt is not likely to be a significant factor.

Second, Brookfield already owns two other casinos, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, giving it a Rolodex of customers to entice to its reopened Atlantic City gambling hall with special deals.

The lack of such a database was a major failing of Revel.

"Revel was a big property, but they just didn't bring the players with them," Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian said Wednesday.

Guardian, who has seen the closures of four casinos since he took office in January, is optimistic about Brookfield. "I think they're the right company for this property," he said.

Brookfield said it intended to operate the property as a casino, but the deal does not depend on the company's getting a gaming license.

A casino consultant said Brookfield has the deep pockets needed to remodel the property and fix some of its design problems, but warned that Brookfield needs a formula that will enable it to take customers from Borgata and other Atlantic City casinos.

"If they come in and say they are going to expand the Atlantic City market, they're kidding themselves and they're kidding everybody else," said Saverio R. Scheri III, president and chief executive of WhiteSand Gaming L.L.C., a consulting firm with offices in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and overseas.

Revel closed Sept. 2, eliminating 2,800 jobs. Its sale to Brookfield US Holdings L.L.C. requires the blessing of bankruptcy court. An approval hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden.

Brookfield competed against Glenn Straub, a Florida investor whose high bid in the auction, which lasted into early Wednesday, was $95.4 million. Straub could still buy the property if the deal with Brookfield is not completed.

No information was available from Revel officials on a projected closing date.

Brookfield spokesman Andrew Willis said the company was "excited about owning the newest and highest-quality asset in Atlantic City," but was "not in a position to discuss the business plan as we continue to explore various options."

The histories of Brookfield's casinos in Las Vegas and the Bahamas are instructive.

The financial condition of Hard Rock is a reminder that troubled casinos are not always easy to turn around.

As one of Hard Rock's lenders, Brookfield took control of the casino in 2011, not long after it went deep into debt to complete a $750 million expansion. The casino has continued to lose money. It warned in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Aug. 12 that it did not have the money to make an interest payment due Aug. 25.

"Hard Rock casino has been in ongoing talks to refinance its debt," Willis said. Unpaid principal and accrued interest totals $987.8 million.

Brookfield has owned Atlantis since May 2012, when it exchanged $175 million in debt for the property's equity.

Atlantis offers "a blueprint of what Brookfield has done with a property of a similar scale" as Revel, Willis said.

Brookfield spent $8 million to upgrade hotel rooms, also improving restaurant facilities, expanding meeting space, and launching a preseason college basketball tournament, the Battle 4 Atlantis.

In July, Atlantis joined Marriott International Inc.'s network of independent hotels. "That's bringing in new convention traffic that Atlantis never had before," Willis said.

Marriott also contributed $100 million to a $1.95 billion recapitalization of Atlantis over the summer.

Brookfield will not face that refinancing challenge at Revel, because more than $2 billion in debt - primarily from institutional investors - has been wiped out in a major financial restructuring and two bankruptcies.

Fitch Ratings analyst Alex Bumazhny said Brookfield's financial strength "is a good thing from the point of view of prospects for additional investment into the market."

It's not clear how quickly Brookfield could be licensed to operate a New Jersey casino.

"It would be premature for me to discuss what might happen, since the bankruptcy court has not yet approved the sale," said Matthew Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement must decide what entities need to be licensed and conduct investigations before the commission can hold hearings.

"We certainly will do this as expeditiously as possible," Levinson said.

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