ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - The president of the Seminole
Indians' Hard Rock franchise says the company would consider buying Atlantic
City's Revel Casino if the price were right.
Revel, Atlantic City's newest casino, is seeking a buyer or
a partner for a joint venture.
Florida-based Hard Rock has been a long-rumored suitor for
Revel and made preliminary inquiries earlier this year to New Jersey casino
regulators about what license it would need if it pursued Revel.
Hard Rock president James Allen, speaking Tuesday at the
East Coast Gaming Congress, confirmed the company has kicked the tires at
Revel.
"We certainly looked at it," he said. "We
participated in the process. The question is not whether Revel will be
operating. The question is what will you have to put into a property that's
negative" in terms of earnings.
While acknowledging the casino is little more than two years
old, Allen said Revel "needs a lot of work. There are issues with the
design."
Revel is designed with the casino on an upper floor that has
to be accessed by a long escalator.
Nonetheless, Allen said, "If the economics were right,
then we would be interested." He declined to say what he considered a fair
price for the casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build and has already gone
through bankruptcy once.
The company's filings with the state indicate it planned to
seek a statement of compliance, a preliminary step in determining who needs to
seek and hold a casino license.
In a February ruling, the New Jersey Division of Gaming
Enforcement said the tribe does not need to qualify for a license but listed
several Hard Rock executives who would need to, including Allen.
A Revel spokeswoman declined to comment on Tuesday.
Hard Rock previously dipped its toe into the waters of
Atlantic City's gambling market but quickly pulled it back. In November 2011 it
was accepted into a pilot program New Jersey was operating to permit
construction of smaller boutique-style casinos that contained fewer than the
500 hotel rooms required by current regulations.
A musical history museum with rock 'n' roll memorabilia was
a key part of Hard Rock's proposal. Its hotel would have started at 208 rooms
and eventually expanded to 850. The first phase of the project would have cost
about $465 million.
But less than a year later, and without putting a shovel
into the ground, Hard Rock scrapped the idea due to market conditions at the
time.
Source: Philly.com
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