Revel Casino Gets full Financing

The construction work of Revel Casino in Atlantic City had been halted for more than a year now. Last week the news came out that the casino has secured a financing of $1 billion and then some to complete the work in its building and begin operations.

Background

The Revel casino belongs to the Revel Entertainment Group, LLC. The Revel casino project in Atlantic City began in the year 2007. The casino is stated to have 150,000 sq ft of gaming space and more than 500,000 sq ft of entertainment space. Its hotel tower is stated to be 53-storey high, making it the tallest building in Atlantic City and the second tallest casino building in the United States of America. But, toward the end of the year 2009, the project had to be halted as there was a lack of finance. This was brought about by the recession that hit the United States that year. The stalling of the project caused great dismay to the thousands of workers who were rendered jobless.

Back to Work

The info of $1 billion financing came as wonderful news to the jobless construction workers and to Atlantic City as a whole. The Governor of the state had been trying for a while to persuade Morgan Stanley, the main stakeholder of Revel, to raise the money to resume construction. But, Stanley was not found to be interested to shell out more money on the project himself. But the company did hire the services of JPMorgan to raise the money early this year. There are also talks of a buyout of Morgan Stanley’s stakes by the company. The Governor of Atlantic City has committed an amount of $261 million for the casino. In return he has negotiated and obtained 20 percent of the casino’s revenue once it opens for the State. If everything goes as per the plan, the Revel casino will open sometime next year. The State is expecting huge revenues once this happens, both from the 20 percent it has secured for itself as well as from the tourists who are likely to visit Atlantic City.

This plan to back Revel is a part of a bigger picture painted by the Governor to revive Atlantic City and bring it out of its slump. The state fell into a complete meltdown after recession hit and has been trying to recover for a long time. The Governor has signed a bill called the Atlantic City Rescue Package, which is aimed at converting Atlantic City into tourist city under the supervision of the state. The bill also aims to ease regulations on its casinos with the aim to rake in higher revenues from them. It also aims at increasing the number of small casinos and to promote online gambling in a big way. The people of Atlantic City hope that the bill will bring in jobs and revenues and improve the prospects in the state.

Critics say that Revel is likely to be the last casino resort to be built in Atlantic City for some time to come once it is completed in 2012.