Carl Icahn, the 3,800-room property’s new owner, has hinted that he may keep Fontainebleau buttoned up until 2015 – a prospect that industry analysts and rival casino owners do not consider unlikely. When Icahn Enterprises CFO Dominick Ragone was licensed in Nevada on July 8, he kept mum about his employer’s plans. Whatever Icahn intends – and he’s believed to be taking a wait-and-see attitude on the Strip economy – he’s playing his cards extremely close to the vest.
Earlier on June 10, Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition requested 47 construction permits for the site. The Las Vegas Sun described the permits as covering a wide range of work, including modifications to the megaresort’s hideous parking structure, which blots out the Strip view of nearby Turnberry Place and its Stirling Club.
"Because Clark County expects to update its building code with new requirements, it’s advantageous to owners to get extensions so they don’t have to pay higher fees or upgrade to more expensive materials included in new regulations," added the Sun, citing Clark County Development Services Assistant Director Dean Friedli. Also, since "F-bleau" has stood abandoned for 13 months, Icahn needs the permits to secure the site and, presumably, to remediate damage that occurred while the multi-billion-dollar project sat exposed to the elements.
Interestingly, Icahn’s new permits list a Los Angeles-based contractor as his construction partner. Las Vegas construction firms have received several black eyes during the troubled construction of CityCenter, now embroiled in litigation.
