ATLANTIC CITY -- The Florida real estate developer who bought the former Revel casino for pennies on the dollar last year said on Thursday that he's prepared to walk away from his efforts to reopen the boardwalk resort because of government roadblocks.
After a state board on Thursday postponed a decision on a key approval that Glenn Straub's company, Polo North Country Club, needs to open the doors of the 6.2-million-square-foot complex, Straub said he was fed up with the red tape involved with doing business in New Jersey.
"This state stinks. It just stinks," Straub declared in an interview during a break in the meeting.
Asked if he was still dedicated to reopening the property, Straub said: "To hell with that."
"I've got other things to do. I don't have time to be screwing with this stuff," he said.
Though Straub had pledged that at least part of the Revel would be operating by mid-June, his company had not received the state and city permits it needed to open up for business. The building remains closed, with chain link fences blocking the entrances from the boardwalk.
Before those fences can come down and guests can come back to the property, Polo North must secure an amended site plan approval from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. The approval is needed, officials said, because the construction of a ropes course alters the way traffic flows through the site.
A public hearing about the traffic change was held in front of the authority's land use board on Thursday, but Polo North's application was not approved because officials wanted more details to address concerns about traffic management and other issues. The hearing was continued to September 8.
The former Revel casino site remains closed. (Erin O'Neill | NJ Advance Media)
Nick Talvacchia, an attorney representing Polo North, told the board holding another hearing was "unnecessary and unwarranted," saying enough information had been provided to move the application forward.
"I've done hundreds and hundreds of these applications. It's almost unprecedented," Talvacchia said.
Paul Weiss, the chairman of the land use board, disagreed, saying "it's fairly common for hearings to be continued when the applicant's information is not thorough and complete."
John Palmieri, the authority's executive director, said in a statement that continuing the hearing will give Polo North the opportunity to present a more complete submission of its development plans and "will provide the public with an opportunity to hear and better understand the development proposal."
Only one member of the public -- Stephanie Segal Miller -- testified during Thursday's hearing. Miller, who lives in the Bella Condominiums near Revel, raised a number of concerns about noise and traffic at the property.
"We're very excited" for the property to be reopening, Miller said, "but we want to make sure that our needs, since of course our building was there first, are still taken care of."
The boardwalk casino has been closed for nearly two years. The property cost $2.4 billion to build. It opened in 2012, went bankrupt twice and shuttered in 2014.
Straub bought the property for $82 million in April 2015. Though Straub announced that the resort would be partially reopened on June 15 (and argues it was ready to reopen at that time), the property is still closed.
Straub has pinned blame on the state for the delay in reopening of the site.
"I've never seen business so bad," he said on Thursday. "I worked in five states. This is 10 times worse than what it would be anyplace else."
All hope is not lost for the Revel reopening: If the land use board gives the greenlight to the amended site plan on September 8, the authority's full board then hears the matter. The next time the full board meets is September 20.
But that may be too little, too late for Straub. When asked at what point he might be willing to throw in the towel on his efforts to reopen the property, he said: "I'm pretty much there already."
He added, "There's no assistance. 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. I'm pretty much there now."
Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.