Lights stay on — for now — at former Revel Casino Hotel

ATLANTIC CITY (AP) — The owners of Atlantic City's former Revel Casino Hotel and a company that provides electricity, heat and air conditioning, and water to the building have agreed to keep utility service flowing to the building — for now.

ACR Energy Partners had threatened to cut off service to Revel as of 5 p.m. Thursday, but both sides agreed to keep working toward an agreement before a scheduled Feb. 11 hearing.

ACR said it had little recourse to ensure its bills are paid, including debt from the power plant's construction.

If utilities are eventually shut off to the sleek glass-enclosed Boardwalk building, several problems could arise:

• Without heat, water pipes could burst.

• Without air conditioning and ventilation, mold could rapidly overtake the building, which is less than 3 years old and cost $2.4 billion to build. Sheet rock, floors and carpeting could have to be ripped out and replaced.

• Equipment could have to be replaced or undergo numerous costly cleaning treatments if the building were ever to reopen.

"Depending upon the extent and duration of the power outage, the impact could be catastrophic to the point of being unrecoverable, from a cost standpoint, anyway," said Dennis Hayes, senior project manager with STV Construction in Philadelphia. "The first immediate impact with loss of power in the winter is freezing of water systems, including potable water lines and fire suppression systems. The next impact would be a result of the mechanical systems ceasing to operate. This would cause a stagnant condition in the building, resulting in the growth of mold and mildew. The extent of this is where the dollars would add up."

• Atlantic City's fire chief warned that without water flowing through the building's pipes and electricity to get firefighters to upper floors, firefighting efforts at the 47-story building would be next to impossible. At 710 feet, Revel is the second-tallest building in New Jersey, behind only the 781-foot-tall Goldman Sachs offices in Jersey City.

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