Who Owns Vegas

Las Vegas Hotel Ownership

Las Vegas Hotels: Who Owns What

By Andrew Hudson

Last updated: March 18 2010
First published: October 2005

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Latest News:

3/18/10: Big news at Who Owns Vegas — a site redesign! After more than a year of coding, this is my first site to sport my new Web styling. I've laboriously built a universal framework of XHTML, CSS and SSI, which results in nicer navigation, better advertising, fluid pagewidths and different themes (coming later). Soon I'll add some photos, graphics, and pizazz!

3/15/10: The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas (348 rooms, 2003-2010) will close on May 2, 2010. This beautiful Tuscan-styled hotel has been on the rocks since January 2008 when the Lake's developer, Transcontinental Corp. defaulted on a $540 million loan. The new owner, The Atalon Group, put the property into bankruptcy in July 2008 and Deutsche Bank acquired the hotel in 2009 (via Village Hospitality LLC) but "could no longer fund the hotel."

2/15/10: Harrah's is skillfully avoiding bankruptcy.

2/11/10: Hooters may be for sale by owner 155 East Tropicana.

1/27/10: Carl Icahn gets the Fountainbleau for $156m through Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC. The previous developer spent $2 billion on the property before declaring bankruptcy.

1/13/10: Las Vegas Monorail files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Hotels Bankrupt Today

(or "Who Doesn't Own Vegas"):

• 11/6/09: Planet Hollywood (2,567 rooms) owner BH/RE LLC defaults. May get bought by Harrah's.
• 7/28/09: Station Casinos, owner of 18 casino properties (which were not included in the bankruptcy).
• 3/22/09: Terrible's Hotel and Casino (400 rooms), owned by Herbst Gaming. May emerge in 2010.
• 2/17/09: Trump International Hotel and Tower (1,282 rooms including condos), owned by Trump Resorts.

Also bankrupt in Vegas:

• 1/13/10: The Monorail. Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
• 4/16/09: Malls: Fasion Show and The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, owned by GGP.
• July 2008: Lake Las Vegas. Developer Transcontinental Corp. defaulted on a $540 million loan in January 2008 and the new owner, The Atalon Group, put the property into bankruptcy.

Las Vegas hotels in default:

• 6/2/09: The owner of Loews Lake Las Vegas, Loews LLV Hotel LLC, defaults to Wells Fargo.
• April 2009: Hooters Hotel and Casino (696-rooms) defaults to Wells Fargo.
• March 2009: Riviera Hotel. Riviera Holdings Corp. defaults to Wells Fargo.
• Dec 2008: The proposed Elvis-themed hotel may not appear as FX Real Estate and Entertainment, owner of the 18 acres, defaults to Credit Suisse.

Introduction

Want to own a Las Vegas hotel? You'll need company, or at least a company. Since Del Webb acquired the Sahara in 1961, the resort hotels of Las Vegas have been mainly financed, built and bought by corporations. When a new hotel costs billions of dollars (Wynn Las Vegas cost $2.7B in 2005), only groups that can tap equity and stock markets have big enough pockets to build something new. Talk about a big gamble.

Of the 131,503 hotel in Las Vegas (LVCVB 2006), MGM MIRAGE controls about one quarter and Harrah's controls about one eighth. About 40,000 rooms are under construction, bringing the room count to 171,276 by 2010.

Let's see who owns what.

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Copyright © 2005–2010 Andrew Hudson for Photo Tour Books, Inc. Written for A Photo Tour of Las Vegas. You may reproduce this article for personal, educational, non-commercial and non-Internet use, such as in a hobbyist newsletter or school project. No Internet publishing is permitted. For commercial use, please email Andrew Hudson for permission.