Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said Monday he was “sad” that he was unable to save New Jersey’s Trump Taj Mahal from closing, costing nearly 3,000 people their jobs, about a month before a key state referendum on whether new casinos could be built in the state.

Earlier this year, Icahn had said he planned to invest up to $100 million in the Taj Mahal, but said “obviously it would not be judicious to proceed with those investments” ahead of the referendum, which was scheduled for Nov. 8.

At that time, Icahn said approving the opening of two new casinos in northern New Jersey--the vote is scheduled for Nov. 8--would “destroy thousands of jobs in Atlantic City and South Jersey.”

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On Monday, Icahn said the Taj Mahal’s closure was related to the rejection of his latest offer to the union of striking workers.

“After our last offer [to the union], which included medical, was rejected, it was simply impossible to find a workable path forward that would not have required funding additional investments and losses in excess of $100 million over the next year,” Icahn said Monday in a statement published on his website.

“Despite our best efforts, which included losing almost $350 million over just a few short years, we were unable to save the Taj Mahal,” Icahn said. “Like many of the employees at Taj Mahal, I wish things had turned out differently.”

Carl Icahn Bloomberg News/Landov

The union representing about 1,000 Taj Mahal employees, who had been on strike since July, said over the summer that Icahn had extracted $350 million from the property, “driving it into bankruptcy,” and allowing Icahn to strip the employees of their health and retirement benefits. Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the Taj Mahal, emerged from bankruptcy in February.

Donald Trump, who opened the Trump Taj Mahal in April 1990, hailing it as the eighth wonder of the world, said in a recent interview with the Associated Press that he felt the two sides should have been able to make a deal. “It’s hard to believe they weren’t able to make a deal,” Trump told the AP.

The Taj Mahal ceased operations as of 5:59 a.m. ET on Monday. Any prize letters for rooms, meals, spa treatments and show tickets that weren’t redeemed by Oct. 9 have expired without any cash value, the hotel said.