Abandoned - Revel Casino Resort

What's up guys? My name is Jake and welcome to episode 55 of Abandoned. In the summer of 2019, we took a road trip through the northeastern United States. It was the same road trip we filmed the amazing Neverly Hotel on and for some reason we were approaching Atlantic City for the end of our trip, but we hadn't been going there to enjoy the beaches or try our luck at the

casino

s in a while. . I've heard about a problematic hotel development on the New Jersey shore, a huge modern glass tower. which looks like a shining star and a somewhat dated skyline of old

casino

hotels, one that was

abandoned

at one point, so being me of course I wanted to check it out for myself and although it was a pleasant stay, it made me think about how This architectural marvel failed so spectacularly that, since my last episode of the

abandoned

series was about a crazy project that burned millions of dollars, I figured this particular property had its own crazy story to tell, concluding with the

resort

that still hasn't It is finished today.

So let's delve into the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City or formerly known as Revel Casino Hotel. This episode was made possible thanks to my Patreon followers. If you want to help support the channel and get a ton of great benefits in return, go for it. to patreon.com brightsunfilms or click the link in the description below. It all started in 2006, when investment bank Morgan Stanley bought a 20-acre plot of land adjacent to the showboat hotel and casino and spent around $70 million on it in the hopes of building a huge, renowned casino complex. world, they put an industry executive named Kevin Desanctis in charge of developing this ambitious plan, and in mid-2007, Morgan Stanley announced their official plans for what they intended to do at the site, which included two.

Huge 700-foot hotel towers comprising more than 4,000 rooms sat atop a massive casino with parking space for around 7,000 cars. This was obviously ambitious, especially for the time, as these towers would have been the tallest in all of New Jersey, so eventually later that year, the project was scaled down to a single hotel tower for now with an opening date. in 2010. It was called Revel Casino Hotel. Construction began in late 2007 and went vertical in early 2008; However, those dates probably sound a little tedious. For all of you, 2008 wasn't exactly the best year to build a massive luxury casino, as the United States was facing a damaging recession.

Atlantic City was instantly left in a dire situation as consumers were not spending as much excess income there and by early 2009, construction funds were quickly drying up, causing thousands of workers to be laid off. Progress slowed just as the tower was reaching its top. Suddenly, the party didn't seem like a great idea, as the shiny tower towered over an area now depressed by In April 2010, in a shocking move, Morgan Stanley decided to pull out of the project after investing more than $1.2 billion. . They decided to take a $900 million loss rather than spend the additional $1 billion that would be needed to finish the project because of this diversion. was put in a precarious situation as the half-finished casino was left in limbo, leading the remaining developers to scramble to find the funds needed to maintain construction, but in a move that for those of you who watched the video from my american dream mall you can find something similar, let's say then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stepped in and announced that his state government would provide $260 million in financing, so now, with the backing of the state, this complex tourism had refined its project, now canceling the planned second tower and reducing its size. its hotel rooms at just a thousand, in fact that second tower was already being built when the developers canceled it.

In the first photos of the construction you can actually see the vertical construction next to tower one, however once it was abandoned the already built structure was simply completed. It was a few stories high and the planned rooms were simply converted into other spaces, so now looking at the building from certain angles it clearly shows that a second tower had already been built before it was abruptly cancelled. Morgan Stanley eventually sold its stake for just $30 million. on March 2, 2011 and a day later, construction finally resumed, the dormant site came back to life and now, with steady progress, an opening date of April 2, 2012 was announced.

Finally, after Six years in the making, the Revel Casino Hotel Atlantic City officially opened. The complex itself had cost $2.4 billion to open the doors, however, that doesn't mean that what they finished wasn't of good quality. The

resort

itself was modern and aesthetically pleasing, with open lobbies and great views from the hotel's many rooms and lots. However, in terms of amenities, on the casino side, it ranked near the bottom of Atlantic City's top 12 casinos in terms of revenue. Its rival had a rather lackluster grand opening, but officials and politicians celebrated the 10,000 new jobs the complex created, Governor Christie said in the official press release for the opening ceremony.

The completion of Revel and its opening is a point of turning point for Atlantic City and a clear sign that people once again have faith in the city's ability to come back and succeed. Revel was often thought to be the saving grace. for the city, a luxury resort to begin a new chapter in the area; However, in reality, Revel's financial situation told a completely different story: in the second quarter of 2012, the resort lost more than $35 million, which was preceded by an even worse third-quarter loss of $37 million. dollars in November Casino officials were raising red flags of possible bankruptcy just as Atlantic City claimed Revel failed to pay $12 million in property taxes and also owed more than $50 million to independent contractors despite to obtain more than one hundred million dollars.

In long-term loans, resorts still couldn't keep up with the huge amounts of money they were losing in February 2013. Just 10 months after opening Revel had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, they had a debt of more than 1.5 billion dollars in the presentation. Revel had stated that the resort's value had fallen from almost two and a half billion dollars to just $450 million and also revealed that its current trajectory would not be profitable until 2017, the resort had ultimately found no way out of its dire situation. situation and after a second bankruptcy filing in August 2014, Revel announced that no buyers were found to rescue the hotel from its debt and incredibly they added that the Revel Hotel and Casino would close on September 2, 2014, just two and a half years after its opening.

Then, in early September, the Rebel closed along with three other major casinos in Atlantic City. Now the biggest question was what was going to happen to the almost new Glenn Straub mega hotel. A developer decided to bid on the project and ultimately won by taking control of his golf course. Course Company, so in early 2015 it bought Revel for just $82 million, or just 3.4 percent of what it costs to build. Strab renamed the resort Polo North and stated that the hotel and casino would be open by summer, during this time of year in the city. It had actually turned off electricity and water to the building for about 20 days, as the power companies were involved in a dispute over rates, while the mega hotel and casino sat empty and now abandoned for the rest of 2015, a The property was only allowed cold running water and was eventually threatened with withholding its pouring privileges by the local sewer company.

Glenn, however, had high hopes for his hotel and stated in early 2016 that the resort would be renovated into a family entertainment destination that would now also feature a water park. He also set a new opening date. on the table by June of that year for having been abandoned for almost two years at this point, the building itself was apparently in very good condition, this was probably due to critical engineering staff being kept in charge of the building so that no significant damage was caused. inflicted, but all of that came at a cost: They were supposedly spending around $1 million each month on maintenance alone.

They had apparently made sure everything was ready to go, but as the summer of 2016 rolled around, Polo North never opened later that year. Glenn revised his planned opening. dated for now in early 2017 and announced a new name for the 10 Atlantic City resort however, as you've probably guessed, it never opened after empty promises and little hope on the part of the public, the resort was sinking deeper and deeper into debt , then rumors began to circulate that 10 was looking for a buyer and that its current owners did not even have the means to finally open it on January 8, 2018.

Those rumors turned out to be true when it was announced that a company called ac oceanwalk would acquire the resort for about 200 million dollars and now finally someone was serious about reopening this property. AC announced that his company would invest another $175 million to return the abandoned and slowly deteriorating structure to a presentable state for opening. Finally, the hotel was renamed for the last time. The Ocean Resort Casino and after almost four years of being empty and effectively abandoned, the not-so-new resort reopened on June 27, 2018. The hotel opened with over 100,000 square feet of gaming, 19 restaurants, 6 bars and a complete spa.

The property also has a large set of common areas, lobbies and conference rooms, most of the original decor, however, has not changed from the original Revel hotel, especially in the rooms, as they are virtually the same As they were in the original overall, the entire structure is around 6.3 million square feet, which is almost the same size as the pentagon, so it's pretty big when I visited, I didn't really know what to expect and when I walked in for the first time and was surprised by how huge the facility is. I enjoyed the architecture and I really enjoyed our room, the views were especially nice.

I think the best thing was that the price for King rooms can be as cheap as 49 per night, which is surprisingly good. We spent more on another dirty room and we didn't exactly get it. This type of accommodation, however, having said that, the complex is a bit of a maze, which tends to happen when such a large building is designed for another client. There is also the fact that the complex is not finished yet, there are several large rooms and even the floors of the main tower that are completely unfinished, there are actually 12 full empty floors where around 600 additional rooms were framed but never built. .

What's even stranger is that these unfinished rooms are located between active finished rooms, so guests are actually staying upstairs and downstairs. a section of the hotel that is unfinished, I assume it is one of the last vestiges of this property's tumultuous past, so what is happening now, when the resort first opened, they were still not profitable and even sparked rumors of another bankruptcy of the new company that His property was run by a man named Bruce Diafik, however, just six months into operating the struggling resort, he died abruptly in a car accident. The result of his death behind the wheel was due to an apparent medical event, so one of his main lenders took over. of the resort in early 2019 and after another $70 million was invested in the hotel, the results are finally positive, according to them, the ocean was self-sufficient for the first time in 2020 before the global pandemic, although of course, due to kovid events forced the hotel to temporarily close.

I'm pretty sure the property won't make any money until 2020 for many reasons, mainly because they had to close and won't be able to fill the hotel to its desired capacity and that sets an unknown course for the future as who knows how long it will last and what financial impact will have. My feelings on this are a bit mixed, on the one hand I enjoyed our room there, waking up to the view was great and the restaurant we ate at was pretty good, it was an interesting experience walking through something I knewIt had had such a difficult history and even sat abandoned for a couple of years, but I also had a strange feeling that everything wasn't exactly right and everything was being hastily held together by something that could collapse, but I guess I'm a little biased since I don't like casino hotels.

I guess in the end the history of this building was the most interesting part of this seemingly standard modern mega resort. is hiding in plain sight unless you know the real story, unfortunately for them, however most people in the area know it to me, the fact that it went through so many owners burned through literally billions of dollars and then it sold for a fraction of a fraction of that, it's incredible. You would never think that such a modern and elegant building would have been through a nightmare, but here we are, 14 years have passed and the marine complex is still not finished and it is really difficult to find anyone other than the developers to blame for the waste. so much time and money, so I guess in the end it was the

revel

who had the game problem.

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