In terms of success, Atlantic City's former Revel casino was a zero.
If it had a number, it was a negative: It went bankrupt twice and then shut down in 2014, never having come close to turning a profit.
But new owner Glenn Straub hopes to swing the pendulum all the way in the other direction by renaming the casino resort Ten and reopening it in the first quarter of 2017.
In a press release, the resort's operators say, "The number ten depicts the highest standard of achievement and is widely recognized as the benchmark of quality and excellence."
Straub, a Florida developer, also adopted the double-loop infinity symbol as the logo for the rebranded resort, which he bought it out of bankruptcy court for $82 million, or about 5 cents on the dollar.
He's also hired Revel's former chief financial officer Alan Greenstein to fill the same role in the reopened Ten.
"I am keenly aware of what systems and strategic business processes are needed to make Ten a success internally and externally," Greenstein said. "I know what works and what did not, and would not have returned if not for Ten's strong forecasted financial model and all-star executive team. It is the most spectacular resort that I have seen in my career and I am determined to make it a success."
The new name could create some interesting wrinkles for gambling regulators and customers alike, including the prospect of having casino chips in the denominations of $1, $5, $25 and $100 stamped with the word "Ten" in their center.
On Tuesday afternoon, the project is seeking a key approval from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority that could move it closer to getting final clearance to reopen. It needs approval of new traffic patterns from the agency, as well as a city certificate of occupancy.
The rebranding comes after numerous false starts and missed deadlines in the quest to reopen the resort, which shut down on Sept. 2, 2014. Straub had promised to have the hotel portion of Revel up and running by June 15, but had to scrap those plans because he had not yet received a certificate of occupancy for the property and because state casino regulators told him he had to apply for a casino license like all the other casino operators in town.
Straub said that since he planned to hire others to actually run the casino, he did not need to be licensed.
And a battle with the owners of the complex's power plant over how much Straub should pay for service at a reopened Revel took up most of 2015. He ended it by simply buying the power plant.
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Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
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