Real estate billionaire Jeffrey Soffer recently closed on the purchase of the former Mardi Gras Casino and Race Track in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The sale ends four decade of ownership by Hartman & Tyner property managers in Southfield, Michigan.
Soffer renamed the property the Big Easy Casino. It had been following extensive damage by Hurricane Irma. A poker room has since reopened.
Although the closing was posted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, it has withheld granting a slot machine license until Soffer’s company, 831 Federal Highway Acquisition, pays $2 million for the license fee and a $250,000 regulatory fee. The terms of the sale were not disclosed in the DBPR’s final order, but reportedly Soffer paid $12.5 million for the nearly 28-acre property, financed through a $19.5 million mortgage from Florida Community Bank.
The Soffer family’s real estate development company, Turnberry Associates, also owns the legendary Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach. In response to rumors he wanted to move Mardi Gras’ casino license to the Fontainebleau, Soffer said, “such a move is both illegal and not in the cards. I just like the real estate. I like the business. I think it’s a good opportunity.”
