According to the report, the investment group is led by Wallace R. Barr, the former president and CEO of Caesars Entertainment, who stepped down from that position when the company was bought by Harrah's Entertainment, and by Curtis Bashaw, the former executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, a state agency. Bashaw, who left the CRDA post last October, currently heads Cape Advisors Inc., a Cape May, NJ-based firm that operates historic hotel properties there and office and residential properties in two other states. All of the parties involved in the pending transaction declined to comment or were unavailable.

According to reports, what Barr and Bashaw have in mind for the site is a small casino/hotel property. The 11 acres is considered too small for a mega hotel of the type that has been rising here lately, such as the Borgata. The site once held the Dunes Casino Hotel, which was never completed and was finally demolished in the early 1990s after sitting vacant for five years.