WAYNE PARRY, The Associated Press
Posted: Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 6:28 PMATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Developer Glen Straub said on Tuesday that he plans to reopen the shuttered Revel resort with a casino, although a smaller one than what was there before.
Straub, who owns the site, told The Associated Press he has made up his mind to offer casino gambling at the resort, ending a long period of uncertainty about its future.
"We'll have a casino that's about 50 percent of what was there," he said.
He gave no timetable for the opening of a casino, which he indicated would come after other plans that are already underway for the resort. Straub said he is moving forward first with plans for a water park at the resort, which could start construction in late May. Hotel rooms could be open by June, he said.
The Florida developer's application for a state casino license is incomplete, and it appears unlikely a casino could open at Revel this summer, given the lengthy investigation state gambling regulators would be required to undertake.
Straub said he plans to hire an operator to run the casino, which would include Asian gambling attractions.
Revel had high hopes of reinvigorating Atlantic City's struggling casino market when it opened April 2, 2012. But it never caught on with gamblers, filed for bankruptcy twice and shut down on Sept. 2, 2014. It was one of four Atlantic City casinos to go out of business that year.
It cost $2.4 billion to build, but Straub bought it for $82 million from bankruptcy court.
If Straub succeeds in reopening Revel with a casino, it would become the city's 9th casino. Its next-door neighbor, the former Showboat Casino Hotel, was bought last week by Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein, who has yet to decide whether to reopen it as a casino or as a non-gambling attraction.
Taken together, the two developments could represent some hope for growth in the Atlantic City casino market, even as the area braces for losses from two new casinos being proposed for the northern part of the state. A bill is pending in the state Legislature for a November referendum in which voters would be asked whether to approve the new casinos.
Atlantic City's eight surviving casinos have begun to stabilize their finances with less competition, and it remains to be seen how a reopened Revel or Showboat might affect that tenuous balance.
Straub has also said the new casino won't be named Revel, but he has yet to decide on a new moniker.
He cleared away a major obstacle to its reopening last fall when he decided to buy the power plant that was at the heart of months of litigation that was preventing the complex from being occupied again.
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