%1

The union for more than 1,100 workers at Atlantic City, N.J.’s Trump Taj Mahal casino who are rallying to save their health-care and pension benefits are now fighting in two places: in the courtroom and on the streets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Several hundred protesters plan to block a major traffic intersection near the Atlantic City Expressway yesterday to draw attention to pressure that workers who are unionized through Unite Here Local 54 face, said union spokesman Ben Begleiter. Billionaire Carl Icahn promised to take over the struggling casino, whose owner filed for bankruptcy last month and put $100 million into its operations. But that offer stands only if casino officials can deliver about $15 million worth of cuts from workers and property tax relief from Atlantic City. Casino officials want to stop contributing money to worker pensions and to end their health care coverage.

An affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management got court approval to buy Atlantic City, N.J.’s shuttered Revel Casino Hotel for $110 million in cash on Tuesday after a judge rejected complaints the auction for the bankrupt complex was tainted, Reuters reported yesterday. "I have heard evidence to satisfy me that the sale to Brookfield should be confirmed," said U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Gloria Burns at the hearing in Camden, N.J. The Canadian investment firm's Brookfield Property Partners picked up the 1,400-room beachfront hotel and casino for a fraction of the $2.4 billion it cost to build. Glenn Straub, a Florida developer who was outbid by Brookfield, blasted the auction as unfair because it was declared over at 5 a.m. on Oct. 1 when he needed more time to put together a bid of up to $140 million.

Revel AC Inc. should reopen bidding for its Atlantic City casino, which Brookfield Property Partners LP won at auction last week, according to a Florida investor who claimed that he was cheated of a chance to make a higher offer, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build, closed last month after two years of unsuccessfully trying to make a profit in the struggling New Jersey gambling center. It accepted a $110 million offer from Toronto-based Brookfield on Oct. 1 after an all-night auction. Glenn Straub, owner of the Palm Beach Polo Golf and Country Club in Wellington, Florida, protested the way the auction was handled, saying in a court filing Oct. 5 that Revel broke an agreement to provide details about competing bids. Straub also said a “life or death” medical issue hindered his ability to counter Brookfield’s winning offer. The sale is scheduled to go up for approval today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. Monday failed to persuade a bankruptcy judge to sign off on an agreement with Carl Icahn that would have allowed the beleaguered gambling company to use its scarce cash as it attempts to survive in chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The ruling from Judge Kevin Gross sent the company and Icahn into renewed talks about what it will take to keep the money flowing at the Atlantic City operation, and its only remaining casino, the Trump Taj Mahal on the boardwalk, open. As secured lender, Icahn has the power to refuse Trump Entertainment access to the cash it needs to mount a turnaround effort. Judge Gross sided with unsecured creditors who said that it is too soon, less than a month into the bankruptcy, to cement terms that would tie the hands of low-ranking creditors in a chapter 11 proceeding that offers them little or nothing. (Subscription required.)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/judge-rejects-trump-entertainment-deal-w…

In related news, the union representing workers of the bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. plans to block an Atlantic City street two days from now to protest management requests to give up their pension and health care plans, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Unite Here, which represents 270,000 workers nationally, met with Trump representatives twice last week and has been unable to come to terms, Bob McDevitt, president of the union’s Local 54, said in an e-mailed statement. Another meeting is scheduled for this week. Trump Entertainment, the casino operator founded by Donald Trump, declared bankruptcy last month in the wake of continued declines in gambling in New Jersey. The company owns the shuttered Trump Plaza hotel and its Trump Taj Mahal may close next month.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-10-06/trump-casino-union-to-bl…

Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., will ask a bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday to approve a $110 million sale to Brookfield Property Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Brookfield Property Partners was declared winning bidder on Wednesday at the end of a three-day auction for the property that began last week and continued into this week. But a Florida real-estate developer has vowed to continue to fight Brookfield for the property. Glenn Straub, who led the bidding for Revel, said the bid from Brookfield was conditioned — a violation of the casino’s court-approved bid rules. Straub started bidding at $90 million in cash and was bid up to $95.4 million before he was topped by Brookfield’s $110 million offer. Built at a cost of $2.4 billion, 47-story beachfront tower made its boardwalk debut in 2012 but failed to turn a profit, filing its second chapter 11 case in June.

The Trump Taj Mahal casino failed on Friday to get immediate court approval to end its union pension obligations, a key condition for a $100 million rescue plan backed by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, Reuters reported yesterday. The setback may be only temporary for Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., bankrupt owner of the Taj Mahal. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Delaware said he will consider the request again on Oct. 14. Erasing the pension obligation is key to a deal to prevent the casino from being the fifth to close this year in the beleaguered New Jersey seaside resort, which has suffered as neighboring states have embraced gambling. Judge Gross said that the Bankruptcy Code barred him from allowing Trump to reject permanently a portion of its collective bargaining agreement. Trump has said that ending the pension obligation will save about $3.7 million annually.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.’s restructuring plan hinges on billionaire Carl Icahn’s lender affiliates investing as much as $100 million and taking control of the company — if the Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator can get union concessions and tax breaks, Bloomberg News reported today. The company, which is trying to avoid closing its Taj Mahal casino next month, filed a restructuring plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, yesterday. Secured lenders controlled by Icahn would get 55 percent of the new equity and new debt for $292.2 million in claims under the plan. Approval of the plan is the “best opportunity” to emerge from bankruptcy and save thousands of jobs, Trump Entertainment lawyers said in the disclosure statement describing the plan. Lenders would make a $100 million equity investment if the company can reach a new labor agreement cutting costs and persuade local and state governments to reduce property taxes, according to court documents.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator, said that it will soon file a reorganization plan for secured lenders to convert some of their $286 million in old debt into equity and new debt not requiring cash interest payments, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. If approved, the lenders will provide $100 million in new capital, the casino operator said. First-lien lenders, including Icahn Partners LP and affiliated funds, were owed approximately $285.6 million plus $6.6 million in interest when the chapter 11 reorganization began this month. The proposal depends on concessions from the union, New Jersey and Atlantic City. The company filed papers on Sept 26 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware seeking permission to modify the existing union contract. Meanwhile, Donald Trump last week asked the judge to take his name off the company’s properties: the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. The 906-room Trump Plaza closed this month. The Taj Mahal, with more than 2,000 rooms, previously told workers it will close around Nov. 13 absent labor concessions.

Brookfield Asset Management has won the auction for Atlantic City's bankrupt Revel Casino Hotel, Reuters reported today. The company bid $110 million for the casino complex, topping a $90-million bid by Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub, who did not submit a superior bid by 5:00 a.m. ET. Revel Casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build, opened in 2012 and closed on Sept. 2. Revel Casino had agreed to use Straub's initial bid to set the benchmark for other potential buyers. Straub had said that he wanted to create a university at the site to attract the world's brightest minds to tackle social problems such as hunger. The case is In re: Revel AC Inc., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey, No. 14-22654.

The Florida developer who entered the first bid in an auction for Atlantic City, New Jersey's Revel Casino Hotel, which closed its doors this month, said yesterday that he plans to challenge the results if he loses, because the process lacked transparency, Reuters reported yesterday. The comments, by Glenn Straub, come as the auction for Revel, Atlantic City's newest casino complex, is scheduled to resume today. The auction started last week with a $90 million cash bid by Straub but adjourned for the Jewish Rosh Hashanah holiday. Straub complained the bidding lacked transparency and he did not even know how many qualified at last week's bid deadline, or how their proposals were being valued. Revel's attorney, John Cunningham with White & Case, called the allegations "entirely false."