Firm Changes Mind About Buying Shuttered Revel company

by Brian Pempus wrote:Revel is closer to toxic waste than a property that can support a casino business, the firm once seeking to buy the property conveyed on Wednesday after backing out of a $110-million deal to take it out of the muck.

According to Philly.com, Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management canceled the deal because payments to a utility company were going to be too high. A utility plant next to the property would need more than $24 million annually from the owner of the casino, a figure which included fixed debt and equity payments stemming from a 2011 deal brokered in desperate times, the report said.

Revel cost $2.4 billion to build and has been through bankruptcy multiple times.

Brookfield beat out Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub, who wanted to buy Revel for $95 million. It is unclear if he is still interested in defunct Revel.

Straub said he wanted to turn Revel into a university where the ideal student is white.

One of the worst schools in the nation in terms of student loan debt among its graduates is already planning on opening a branch campus where the Showboat Casino once operated.

Atlantic City will lose its fifth casino this year next month after the Trump Taj Mahal closes. The owners of that casino want $175 million in government aid in order to stay in business. It already was approved to shed its healthcare and pension plans for employees.