Owner of Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas bids for Revel

ATLANTIC CITY — A Canadian asset management firm that owns casinos in Las Vegas and the Bahamas has been identified as a second bidder in the ongoing bankruptcy auction of the failed Revel in Atlantic City.

In a court filing Tuesday, Revel’s attorneys identified Brookfield Asset Management as a bidder. That firm is vying with Florida developer Glenn Straub for the right to buy the $2.4 billion Revel for pennies on the dollar.

Straub’s attorney says there are apparently only two bidders, and that Straub’s offer of $95 million is the current high bid.

Brookfield owns the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, and the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

The company’s website says it is a global firm with headquarters in Toronto, with $200 billion in assets under management.

Straub set the floor for the auction with a $90 million “stalking horse” bid that set the minimum price. If another bidder exceeds that, Straub would receive a $3 million breakup fee.

Straub, who said he envisions using the sleek glass-covered tower as a so-called “genius academy” at which tenants would address the world’s pressing problems. It may or may not have a casino, he said.

But Straub has been critical of the secrecy surrounding the auction, which began last week and was suspended until Tuesday, when it resumed at the New York offices of Revel’s bankruptcy lawyers.

In a request to the court filed Monday, Straub asked the judge to direct Revel’s attorneys to share details of other bids with him by Wednesday afternoon.

The court declined to do so, instead scheduling an Oct. 20 hearing on his grievances.

In the filing, Straub said he and others waited around for six hours on Sept. 24, “but nothing happened.” No bids were taken, he said, and the auction was adjourned for the Jewish holiday.

“The entire time spent on the trip was completely wasted with significant dollars spent, all for nothing,” he wrote. “That six hours went by with nothing whatsoever occurring in public, and with the debtors’ counsel refusing to provide any information at all as to the ‘proceedings’ supposedly taking place behind closed doors, serious concerns arise as to good faith.”