Florida ‘business doctor’ offers $90 million for Revel — and very little about his plan

A Florida developer has offered to $90 million in cash for Atlantic City’s recently closed Revel Casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build.

The bid from Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub is a “stalking horse bid” — meaning Revel’s owners have the right to walk away from the deal if they get a better offer.

The potential buyer is keeping his cards close to the vest and declined to provide details on his plans for the glass tower on the end of the Boardwalk. But he promises to “bring in the best of the best of the world.”

“It takes a little bit of time. We’re saying 25 percent of people working again after three to six months and two years, give us a little bit of room, and we’ll have other things for them to do,” he said. 

In a free-flowing conversation Thursday, he spoke of factors which might affect his efforts to revive Revel, from American fiscal policy, energy independence and the potential of another incident like 9/11 to devastate the U.S. economy.

He described his company, Polo North Country Club Inc., as a medical practice for failing businesses.

“Doctors take care of sick patients that come in and they don’t give them two aspirins if they’ve got cancer,” Straub said. “You go ahead and you get the right medicine that’s able to handle the type of sickness the person has. And we’re nothing more than business doctors that turn around sick companies.”

That doesn’t mean he always has a soft touch. Kristen Clark covers the village of Wellington, where Straub lives and owns property, for the Palm Beach Post. The multimillionaire owns one of the West Palm Beach suburb’s largest subdivisions.

“Right now they’re dealing with this Cypress preserve and who’s in charge of that and Glenn Straub has sued the village in a couple of different ways over that issue.” she said. “And he’s got that reputation, I guess, of going after people through the court system.”

A 2004 profile called in the Post called the successful businessman “the most hated man in Wellington.”

“He doesn’t like the spotlight,” Clark said of Straub. “He is involved in major issues in the village but he’s not one to actually personally show up at meetings or personally advocate to the village. He has attorneys and lobbyists who do that for him.”

Straub hinted at, but declined to say, whether he’s acquired other property in Atlantic City, or elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic region. He did say that he has other holdings outside Florida.