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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A perennially challenged Atlantic City casino will finally turn a profit this month and chart the way forward under the ownership of a New York hedge fund.

Revel closed on Sept. 2 after just over two years of operation, one of four Atlantic City casinos to go out of business this year. A fifth, the Trump Taj Mahal, may close on Nov.

The Ocean Casino Resort, which until a few weeks ago was known as the Ocean Resort Casino , has greatly reduced its debt and will return to profitability in May, according to Eric Matejevich, the interim CEO managing the oceanfront property while an ownership transfer takes place.

1. ATLANTIC CITY — A New Jersey appellate court has sided with Atlantic City piano tuner Charlie Birnbaum in his long-running fight to keep his family home in the shadow of the Ocean Resort casino from being seized by the state through eminent domain.
2. For 23 years, Glebocki was the vice president of finance for some of Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino operations, prior to taking the same position at Revel in 2007 and then becoming Revel's.

The property, which opened in 2012 as Revel and closed two years later, is in the process of changing hands yet again. It is being transferred from the late Bruce Deifik, the Colorado developer who died in a car crash last month , to hedge fund Luxor Capital, who had agreed to take over and invest $70 million into the property as Deifik ran out of money to operate it. The deal could close sometime in June.

Of the $70 million Luxor pumped into the property earlier this year, $50 million went to pay down debt, leaving it with a greatly improved balance sheet, Matejevich told The Associated Press.

That encouraged David Schwartz, a gambling expert at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

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“Reducing the debt load will ease a great deal of pressure, making it easier for the property to invest in facilities and promotions that will draw customers,” he said. “Oftentimes, putting a casino on a more solid financial footing can make a big difference.”

The resort had begun to run out of money in September, prompting Deifik to relinquish ownership in January, after just six months.

The immediate priority was to stop the bleeding; the property had been losing money every month since September, and had fallen below state-mandated liquidity requirements.

“In a lot of ways, we’re going faster than we had imagined we could,” Matejevich said. “We’ve largely eliminated losses at the property and we are making a major effort to reintroduce this place to people.”

It’s a small sample size, but encouraging nonetheless: the casino won more from customers at slot machines this April than in any previous month, and recorded its second-highest hotel occupancy rate. The exact numbers will be released by state regulators later this month.

The property’s history has not been a good one. Original investors Morgan Stanley pulled out before it was halfway finished, taking a $1 billion loss. Revel went bankrupt twice, never came close to turning a profit, and shut down in September 2014. It remained closed under the ownership of Florida developer Glenn Straub, who sold it to Deifik in January 2018.

Deifik reopened it under a new name last June, but quickly ran out of money once the busier summer months ended. The casino lost $3.2 million in September; $4.1 million in October; $5.5 million in November and $5.8 million in December, and by January, Luxor, who had been one if its lenders, agreed to take over.

When it was called Revel, the property was one of five of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos to go out of business between 2014 and 2016. With less competition, the surviving casinos began to fare better. But with Revel reopening as the Ocean casino and the Trump Taj Mahal reopening as the Hard Rock, a higher level of competition has been reintroduced to a market that had only recently regained its footing. Operating profits in Atlantic City fell by more than 15% last year.

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Ocean has instituted a new marketing plan emphasizing its casino offerings — hence the transposition of “resort” and “casino” in its name — and is addressing a longtime patron gripe by adding new elevators to make it easier to get to the casino floor from the hotel.

Players club members now receive offers seven days a week, up from once a week, said Mike Donovan, the property’s chief marketing officer. He added the casino has a database from when it operated as Revel, and is contacting former customers “that we haven’t talked to in a while.”

One of its big goals is to add 500 hotel rooms within its existing tower, boosting its inventory from 1,400.

The casino is adding 200 new slot machines, and said it has bought out the lease for the Royal Jelly burlesque club on its premises from operator Ivan Kane. Ocean will replace it by Memorial Day weekend with what it describes as a “speakeasy” club that will also offer burlesque, as well as tabletop gambling.

Other amenities are coming along more slowly. The property still does not have a buffet, and won’t this summer, either; a food court is planned for the interim. A Starbucks just inside the main casino entrance has been on the books for months, but construction has not yet started.

Perhaps the most important development is a commitment on the part of the property’s future owners to keep Ocean open and running for the foreseeable future, past the busy summer months.

Atlantic City’s main casino union recently asked regulators to help protect casino jobs at properties owned by hedge funds, accusing them of seeking short-term profits at the expense of long-term investment and growth. The union’s president, Bob McDevitt, however, said Luxor appears to be sincere in its desire to rebuild Ocean’s business and operate it for the foreseeable future.

“Luxor is committed to operating Ocean and is pleasantly surprised by the speed of operating improvements at the property,” Matejevich said. “Luxor fully anticipates the market slowdown associated with the fall and winter seasons.”

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When Glenn Straub bought the shuttered $2.4 billion Revel Casino in Atlantic City for just $82 million in a bankruptcy court, the Florida based real estate developer had huge plans to revamp the property which had a casino, 55,000 sq ft of retail space, a 32,000 sq foot spa, 13 restaurants and close to 7,000 parking spaces.

Straub acquired the bankrupt casino back in August 2015 and had plans to open the casino as soon as possible. Now 24 months later, Straub is yet to open the casino as he has faced a number of challenges from vendors and legislators in Atlantic City.

The real estate developer has expressed his frustration on numerous occasions with the amount of bureaucracy and red tape that he has had to go through along with the lawsuits that have prevented him from opening the Revel casino.

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Straub has made more than once announcement confirming a potential opening date, only to have to cancel those plans. He also admitted that had he known it would be this difficult to re-launch operations, he would never have bought the Revel casino in the first place. Recent reports from the Atlantic County Clerk’s Office show that a sale of agreement has taken place between Straub’s company – Polo North Country Club and a Colorado based company known as Mile High Dice.

The filing read

Polo North Country Club Inc., a Florida Corporation, and Ten RE ACNJ, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company, are parties to a Purchase and Sale Agreement, with respects to the purchase and sale of the real property at 500 and 601 Boardwalk.

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The agreement shows that Straub has sold the controversial power plant and the casino property to Mile High. Bruce Deifik has been listed as the manager of Mile High. Deifik is also the founder and president of Integrated Properties Inc which was established in 1990 and engages in acquisition, development, management, disposition and leasing of commercial properties. The deal will be subjected to regulatory approval and a sale price has not yet been listed.

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Straub denied entering into any sales agreement with Mile High Dice and said he never heard of such a company. He also said that anyone could make a filing and that it was probably done to cause more delays for his company.

Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian said whoever bought the Revel Casino must look at opening quickly to create thousands of jobs for Atlantic City locals.

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