As reported recently, one of the state of New York’s gambling facilities, Resorts World Catskills owned and operated by the Empire Resorts company may close its doors at least temporarily. The company which owns the resort recently revealed that its officials are considering voluntary bankruptcy to head off its creditors which will definitely affect the massive, more than three hundred-rooms World Catskills resort.
According to the Poughkeepsie Journal’s report, Empire Resorts made this revelation via its official press release on the 9th of August. This news came shortly after the company released that it has lost around $73 million in twelve months. When it comes to the company’s latest venture, Resorts World Catskills hotel and casino opened its doors in February of 2018. The resort is located in Kiamesha Lake in the state of New York.
The resort was built on the Concord Hotel’s former site on a massive 65,000 square feet property. Its gaming space includes more than one hundred table games and over two thousand slot machines. The hotel area features more than three hundred suites with other areas. The resort originally was to be called Montreign Resort Casino, but the resort’s owner Empire Resorts decided to name it Resorts World instead.
Construction on the Entertainment Village
In order to enrich this area with new facilities, the owner of Resorts World Catskills started with the constriction of the massive Entertainment Village which is a building located next to the Resorts World Catskills’ casino retail space. This facility is supposed to include over one hundred hotel rooms alongside several dining areas and restaurants. Even though the project was expected to be done by December last year, it is still on hold due to Empire Resorts’ financial issues.
As it was reported several days ago, the resorts owner and parent company Empire Resorts was considering filing for voluntary bankruptcy. As the company’s official press release details, Empire Resorts reported more than $211 million in generated losses from February 2018 until June of 2019. According to the Times Herald-Record, these massive losses mainly occurred due to gaming revenues which lagged around forty-five percent below what the company projected for that twelve-month period.
Besides owning and operating Resorts World Catskills, Empire Resorts also owns the popular Monticello Raceway racino located in the Catskills Mountains around ninety miles from New York City. The company is headquartered in New York and almost ninety percent of the company is owned by Genting Group. Empire Resorts was founded back in 2003 thanks to consolidation between the Catskills LCC and Alpha Hospitality companies.
The Creation of Empire Resorts and Its Financial Decline
The entire consolidation was carried out by the Alpha Hospitality’s CEO Robert Berman who was offered this position by Stanley Tollman. Back in 2003, Mr. Berman decided to fully reconstruct Alpha Hospitality after some of the company’s major shareholders were accused of taxes-related fraudulent activities.
With this move in particular, Mr. Berman managed to restore the company’s financial stability, He also decided to sell some of the company’s gaming assets and merge with the Catskills Development LCC company which eventually led to the creation of today’s nearly bankrupt Empire Resorts.
With more than $36 million-worth of operational losses that Empire Resorts generated in only twelve months, the company’s officials are hoping to obtain some extra liquidity sources or restructure its existing debt among other obligations.
