Atlantic City's Revel casino and hotel complex has seen much better days, like the time Beyonce performed there in front of Michelle Obama, and when they threw all those big beach club parties. And though it was sad when it closed in 2014, developer Glenn Straub bought it in 2015, with big plans to build a second tower, an extreme sports complex, two marinas, two waterparks and a host of other improvements, offering an optimistic vision for the complex. So, how's that all going? "This state stinks. It just stinks," Straub told NJ.com this week. Well then.
Straub's uncharitable words towards the State Chris Christie Built came after the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority's land use board delayed a permit that would allow the casino to reopen. Apparently they needed more information regarding how a ropes course in the complex would change traffic flow through the complex, and pushed a continuation of the hearing to September 8th. An approval on September 8 would then have to be heard by the authority as a whole on September 20.
Straub, who bought the complex for $82 million in 2015 and was hoping to get it partially up and running by June of this year, sounds like he might not wait that long. "I don't ask them for any money. I don't ask them for any bonding. I don't ask them for assistance or tax credits or anything else," he told NJ.com, after telling them that he was "pretty much" ready to give up on the reopening effort.
