Ocean Casino Resort (formerly Revel Casino Hotel) is a resort, hotel, and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The venue is the northernmost casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, located on of land, adjacent to the Showboat Hotel. It is notable for its white sphere structure atop its roof away from the Boardwalk, capable of displaying a wide variety of colors and designs thanks to the LEDs inside it.
Revel opened on April 2, 2012, and after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time, closed on September 2, 2014. Revel was the third of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014. Later that month, on September 11, 2014, the casino reached a deal to sell itself to Glenn Straub's Polo North Country Club, a developer based in Florida, for $90 million, a fraction of the cost of construction. The sale plan failed, and Revel was planned to be sold at a September 30, 2014 auction to Brookfield Asset Management for $110 million. On November 19, Brookfield Management reneged on the deal. On April 7, 2015, Revel was sold to Polo North Country Club for $82 million. One of the property's tenants and new management of the property announced plans to reopen Revel under the name TEN.
After multiple struggles of reopening the properties and the anticipated opening dates being announced then delayed, the casino never opened to the public under the ownership of Straub. In January 2018, the sale of the property was announced and it reopened as Ocean Resort Casino on June 27, 2018. In August 2026, Ilitch Gaming acquired full control of Ocean Casino Resort.
Design and construction
Ocean Casino Resort's hotel tower is the tallest structure in Atlantic City and one of the tallest in the state of New Jersey at 710 feet high; and is the second tallest casino tower in the United States.Vanderborg, Carey. "Revel Atlantic City: What The New Hotel Means For Atlantic City" in International Business Times (10 April 2012). Retrieved 7 April 2013.Barna, John. "Revel to begin previewing $2.3 billion Atlantic City casino resort on April 2" in The Gloucester County Times (9 February 2012). Retrieved 24 June 2013. Arquitectonica was the design architect of the project. BLT Architects was the executive architect for the entirety of the project and architect of record for 75% of the facility."Built to impress: Attention to detail is key at Revel", Press of Atlantic City, April 1, 2012. Tishman Realty & Construction, which served as construction manager for The Borgata, performed the same role at Revel."Tishman to Manage 20-Acre Revel Development Site in A.C." , NJBIZ, April 24, 2007. Scéno Plus, a Montreal-based design firm, aided in the conceptualization and implementation of Revel's casino.Jaffoni, Joseph."Revel Entertainment names Arquitectonica design architect for its Atlantic City resort development resort", March 2007, accessed July 19, 2011. In the summer of 2008 the project was officially scaled back to include just one hotel tower with 1,900 rooms due to lack of financing. In March 2009, construction was stopped because of difficulties in raising the financing necessary to complete the project. Revel resumed construction in February 2011 after new financing was secured, and opened with 1399 rooms.
Ovation Hall Ovation Hall is the 5,500-capacity multi-purpose venue at Ocean. Opened with the building in 2012, it has hosted acts like Maroon 5, Beyoncé, Brooks & Dunn, and Duran Duran.
Amenities The former Revel Casino Hotel featured two nightclubs, 13 restaurants, two live entertainment venues and multiple swimming pools. The resort featured a landscaped rooftop deck containing outdoor pools, cabanas, fire pits and a "pine grove" (known as Sky Garden) with more than 30,000 live trees and plants. The casino was located six stories above the ocean, and a three-story nightclub overlooked the lobby. Revel was completely smoke-free upon opening, but the resort announced in early 2013 that it would create a smoking area.
Gaming
Revel Atlantic City had of gaming space, more than 2,500 slot machines, and 120 table games. The casino was separated into several areas, including the following:
Poker room (closed in August 2013) Table games – Featured over 120 table games, including blackjack, craps, mini-baccarat, roulette, Let It Ride, Big Six wheel, three card poker, four card poker, Fortune Pai Gow poker, and Spanish 21.
Dining The resort had three main restaurants and ten less formal dining options."Revel: Dining" (commercial website). Retrieved 30 October 2013.
Events SportsBoxing and mixed martial arts matches are held at the casino.
Incidents Construction safety incidents A tower crane on the Revel construction site collapsed in high winds on March 13, 2010, injuring one person on the ground. On March 20, 2010, the use of welding torches to remove the collapsed crane sparked a rooftop fire. The damage from the fire was minor, and there were no injuries.
Lightning from a brief, intense storm struck three concrete workers on September 15, 2011, killing one. On September 30, 2011, a worker was listed in critical condition with a head injury after falling off a ladder.
Escalator In August 2012, an English tourist was saved by bystanders after his clothing caught in the escalator at Revel. Besides tattered clothes, he suffered a broken leg.
On September 10, 2012, a customer was severely injured at Revel when he fell off an escalator to the floor below.
Ray Rice incident
On September 8, 2014, National Football League (NFL) running back Ray Rice was suspended indefinitely following release by TMZ of a video recording showing him assaulting his fiancée in an elevator at Revel earlier in the year. The publication of the security video forced the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL to revisit their positions on the matter, leading the league to extend Rice's suspension (formerly for two weeks) and the team to release him. The only public video previously available was from outside the elevator and showed Ray Rice dragging his unconscious fiancée partially out of the elevator before a hotel employee stopped to help them.
History Revel (2012–14)
Financial problems and closure Construction of the resort cost $2.4 billion."Luxury mega-casinos to transform face of Atlantic City", USA Today, November 26, 2007 Global financial company Morgan Stanley, the owner of 90% of Revel Entertainment Group, decided in April 2010 to discontinue construction, put its stake in Revel up for sale and walk away from its $932 million investment. On February 1, 2011, as part of his plan to revitalize Atlantic City, Governor Chris Christie announced that the State of New Jersey would provide tax incentives up to $261 million in the stalled project in exchange for 20% of certain equity distributions."Christie: NJ to invest $260M in stalled casino project", Philly.com, February 1, 2011 The tax incentives would be paid for by a portion of state taxes generated by the project. None of the $261 million in tax incentives was paid to Revel. On February 17, 2011, Revel Entertainment Group, LLC announced that it completed a $1.15 billion financing package which enabled the company to complete construction of Revel.
Revel lost $35 million in the 2nd quarter of 2012, and lost $37 million in the 3rd quarter of 2012. In August 2012, Moody's Investor Services and Standard and Poor's downgraded Revel's credit to Caa2 and CCC, respectively. On August 20, 2012, Revel asked lenders for a $100 million credit cushion. In November 2012, casino officials warned federal regulators about growing debt load of more than $1.3 billion could lead to bankruptcy or foreclosure if revenues did not increase in the foreseeable future. Atlantic City officials noted that Revel owed $12 million in unpaid property taxes, and Unite Here Local 54 said that Revel owed $51 million to contractors. A month later, Revel stated that it had received another $150 million in loans, including a $125 million term loan and a $25 million increase to an existing $100 million revolving loan.
In early 2013, because of uncertainty about whether Revel would have enough revenue to pay back its loans, Moody's and Standard and Poor's downgraded Revel's credit rating again to Caa3 and CC, respectively. On February 19, 2013, Revel announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The prepackaged bankruptcy will include immediate payment of all priority claims (e.g., vendors, taxes), and the reduction of Revel's debt from $1.503 billion to $272 million in exchange for the transfer of all of Revel's equity to the creditors. As part of its bankruptcy filing, Revel declared that the casino's value had dropped from $2.4 billion to $450 million, and predicted that Revel would not be profitable until 2017. In an attempt to attract more business, Revel created a smoking area and reduced hotel room prices, and planned to create an inexpensive food court, and a private lounge for high rollers.
On June 19, 2014, Revel once again filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, warning of closing in early September if a buyer was not found.
On August 12, 2014, Revel announced that no suitable bids were received, and that it would close by September 1. By August 18, Revel Casino Hotel announced the official closing.
The hotel, resort, and casino closed permanently on September 2, 2014. Revel was the third Atlantic City casino to close in 2014, after Showboat Hotel Casino closed on August 31, following the Atlantic Club Hotel Casino. The hotel was closed on September 1, 2014, at 11:00 am and the casino was closed the next day at 6:00 am. All reservations after September 1 were canceled and room deposits were automatically refunded. All Revel guests who self-parked or utilized the valet were required to remove their parked cars from the facility by 9:00 am on September 2.
Revel Group LLC, headed by former Revel Atlantic City CEO Kevin DeSanctis, released a statement on September 22, 2014, announcing Revel Group was terminating its license agreement with Revel, citing "the property has failed to use the licensed marks in a manner consistent with Revel's standards of quality as provided for in its License Agreement."
Toronto-based Brookfield US Holdings LLC won a bankruptcy court auction for Revel on October 1, 2014, and planned to reopen it as-is. It submitted a bid of $110 million in an auction.
A bankruptcy court hearing to approve the sale was scheduled for October 7, 2014. An opposing bidder, Florida developer Glenn Straub (Miami Area), was selected as the backup bidder in case the Brookfield bid did not close on the deal. Brookfield Management reneged on this deal on November 19, 2014. On January 5, 2015, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Revel to Polo North Country Club, Inc., led by Straub. On February 11, 2015, due to court battles, the sale to Straub was canceled by Revel. Then, on April 6, 2015, Straub got approval to discuss the sale of the casino to him.
On April 7, 2015, Revel was sold to Glenn Straub's Polo North Country Club for $82 million.
Events after sale to Polo North (2015–18) Two days after Revel was sold to Polo North Country Club, on the afternoon of April 9, 2015; ACR, owner of the Energetic Inlet District Energy Center (which is the sole source of primary power, backup power, and hot and chilled water to the Revel) stopped supplying power and water to the building.
On April 29, 2015, after 20 days without power or water, U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle ordered power and chilled water to be restored to the Revel under a two-week deal between Straub and ACR. Revel facilities staff said limited power was restored around 11:00 am that morning, and engineers said there was no damage done to the building. The deal was later enforced indefinitely.