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Trump Taj Mahal to Close Next Month Unless Union Drops Challenge

Michael Bathon, Bloomberg · November 15, 2014 at 12:01 am

The outlook for Trump International Resorts Inc.’s Taj Mahal is bleak, and the odds of the Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino remaining open are dwindling by the day.

In a case in which the company and its union agree on very little, one fact is clear: If things don’t change, the Taj Mahal will close by mid-December and more than 3,000 workers in the ailing seaside town will lose their jobs.

Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 9 and shut its other hotel, the Trump Plaza, the fourth Atlantic City casino to close this year. Casino revenue in the city dropped more than 40 percent in 2013 as gamblers took their business to neighboring states.

Trump Entertainment informed New Jersey gambling regulators that it will close the Taj Mahal next month if it can’t come to terms with Unite Here Local 54, which represents more than 1,100 of the casino’s employees.

“We informed the Division of Gaming Enforcement that we intend to close the Trump Taj Mahal facility on Dec. 12,” Kristopher Hansen, a Trump Entertainment lawyer, told a bankruptcy judge at a hearing yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hansen said the company will continue to negotiate with the workers and its lender, an affiliate of billionaire Carl Icahn, which would take control of the casino operator under a proposed reorganization plan.

Contract Scrapped

Last month, Trump Entertainment won bankruptcy court approval to scrap its contract with the union and impose concessions that the company called vital to its survival.

The union appealed, and Trump Entertainment said it can’t survive if that challenge isn’t withdrawn.

“With the Taj Mahal intending to close on Dec. 12, I don’t see any basis for the union to withdraw that appeal,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross said at yesterday’s hearing.

Trump Entertainment is seeking court approval to distribute an outline of its plan to creditors and take their votes.

Under a revised proposal Trump Entertainment filed yesterday, unsecured creditors will now share about $1 million and get interests in a litigation trust, Hansen said. The trust would be able to pursue claims such as payments made within 90 days preceding the bankruptcy.

Not Satisfied

Unsecured creditors weren’t satisfied by the offer and asked the judge to terminate the company’s exclusive right to propose a plan. That request is scheduled for a Dec. 4 hearing.

The official committee of unsecured creditors can make a competing proposal by early next week, said Karen A. Giannelli, a lawyer for the panel.

Once Trump Entertainment and the creditors can agree on language in a disclosure statement that would explain the company’s plan while also saying the committee is seeking to present its own proposal, the judge said he will allow the statement to be sent to creditors for a vote.

Donald Trump, the real-estate tycoon who founded the company, has no involvement in Trump Entertainment now and has been seeking to have his name removed from its properties.

The case is In re Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., 14-12103, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Bathon in Wilmington, Delaware, at mbathon@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Dunn at adunn8@bloomberg.net Michael Hytha

Trackbacks

  1. The Adams Daily Report – November 17, 2014 says:
    November 17, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    […] Trump Taj Mahal to Close Next Month Unless Union Drops Challenge New Jersey (Atlantic City) – Michael Bathon, Bloomberg – The outlook for Trump International Resorts Inc.’s Taj Mahal is bleak, and the odds of the Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino remaining open are dwindling by the day. In a case in which the company and its union agree on very little, one fact is clear: If things don’t change, the Taj Mahal will close by mid-December and more than 3,000 workers in the ailing seaside town will lose their jobs…“We informed the Division of Gaming Enforcement that we intend to close the Trump Taj Mahal facility on Dec. 12,” Kristopher Hansen, a Trump Entertainment lawyer, told a bankruptcy judge. Bloomberg – CDC Newsroom […]

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