Business

Failed Revel casino on block

The hedge funds that this winter repossessed the bankrupt $2.5 billion Revel casino will, in a few weeks, start a formal auction to find a buyer, The Post has learned.

Early conversations indicate that their asking price — a more than $600 million valuation for a resort not yet breaking even — may be too rich for potential suitors.

The hedge funds, which hired Moelis & Co. to handle the sale, are open to selling just a 51 percent stake and keeping the rest, a source familiar with their thinking said.

In 2011, after Morgan Stanley walked away, they invested $1.2 billion to finish construction.

“I don’t think it sells [at that price],” a banker following the situation said.

Meanwhile, they are re-fashioning the Atlantic City spot to better appeal to gamblers.

Revel was supposed to be a new kind of casino — with no low-cost buffets, no smoking and a casino on a different floor than reception, with windows that looked out onto the best Atlantic City beach, so gamblers did not lose track of place and time.

It would be a resort that happened to have gambling, the thinking went. Soon, it will allow smoking in a quarter of the building.

Revel hopes to attract corporate customers as construction is stalled on Caesars’ nearby $134 million conference center.

Revel last month fired marketing chief Darlene Monzo and hired The Fine Point Group, casino consultants, to develop a new strategy.

Roger Gros from Global Gambling Business magazine said Revel has just recently put a marketing plan in place, which might be too late for the peak summer season.