MGM Grand shocked the casino world on Feb. 23, 2000, by tending an offer for Mirage Resorts Inc. (MRI) at $17 a share, or a total of $5.4 billion.
Mirage declined the offer and adopted a "poison-pill" defense against a hostile takeover. (A frenzy of speculation ensued, including rumors that Harrah’s would step forward as a friendly "white knight" to acquire MRI.)
MGM quickly upped the bid price to $21 per share, or $6.4 billion. On March 6, MRI accepted the offer, this time really stunning the casino world. (Why Wynn sold is an answer for another day.)
On April 24, 2000, the Desert Inn celebrated its 50th anniversary. A time capsule was buried in a custom-designed granite burial chamber on April 25, 2000, to be opened on April 25, 2050.
Ironically, three days later, on April 27, 2000, Steve Wynn bought the Desert Inn.
Knowing that he’d cash upwards of $500 million out of the MRI deal when it closed (in June 2000) and recognizing his ability to attract investment capital and secure bank financing, Steve Wynn exercised his passion for buying up Las Vegas acreage and designing and building expensive resort-casinos by purchasing the property for $270 million. (The deal closed shortly after the MGM-MRI transaction took place.)
In hindsight, it was one of the great real estate purchases in Las Vegas history. For $270 million, Wynn bought 200 acres at the north-center Strip, including 2,000 linear feet, more than a third of a mile, of Strip frontage. The parcel was more than twice the size of the lot that the Mirage and Treasure Island occupy, and 25% larger than the old Dunes property, occupied by Bellagio and Monte Carlo (on which Wynn also made a spectacular deal less than 10 years earlier). In addition, the property came with massive water rights and a 32-acre vacant lot.
In all, Wynn paid a little more than $1 million an acre. Today, less than eight years later, the same property would probably be worth $30 million to $35 million an acre, perhaps $6 billion to $7 billion. And that’s not including the Desert Inn itself, which, in turned out, was a total tear-down.
The typically ebullient Wynn outquoted even himself when he called it "the single most important piece of real estate in the western United States."
Later in 2000, Wynn closed the DI.
On Oct. 23, 2001, the main tower was demolished to make room for his new megaresort.
