Colony Capital LLC To Buy Casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Sun International Hotels Inc. has sold
Resorts Atlantic City casino for $140 million to a real estate investment fund.

The Los Angeles-based fund, Colony Capital LLC, and Nicholas Ribis, a former president and chief executive of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, announced the deal Monday.

The sale also includes a $40 million option to buy about 10 acres of undeveloped land next to the casino. The deal is expected to be finalized sometime this winter.

Ribis will serve as the casino's chief executive, and current Resorts President Audrey Oswell is expected to continue as chief operating officer.

Sun officials declined to comment on the sale Monday. The company bought Resorts, the city's first casino, in 1996 and had poured $50 million into renovations.

A Colony spokesman said the company has no immediate plans to expand Resorts.

``Colony is clearly interested in gaming properties, so this is an investment opportunity they decide to pursue,'' Owen Blicksilver, a Colony spokesman, told The Press of Atlantic City for Tuesday's editions.

Colony has about $6 billion in four funds, one of which has a controlling interest in Harvey's Casino Resorts, based in Lake Tahoe.