Back on Oct. 28, 2011, VegasTripping.com leaked news – via an inside source at M Resort – that the property would soon be in expansion mode. A sprung structure (basically a glorified tent) was to be built at the northernmost tip of the property for conventions and exhibitions … and this indeed has been done. We’re still waiting to see action on the bigger piece of the build-out, which would have entailed a second hotel tower plus a shopping all, on M’s southeast corner.
"Seems that the resort always runs at such high occupancy that Penn National, the M's new owners, feel that there is enough demand to expand the resort even in this questionable economy," wrote a VegasTripping contributor. "On top of that, the utilities and grading were installed for just such an expansion when the original property was built, making this a very viable possibility for the not too distant future."
Indeed, the existing tower was only the first of several phases of construction that original owner Marnell Cos. envisioned for the site, although four condominium towers were what M President Anthony Marnell III initially saw as Phase II. (It’s safe to say, the Vegas condo market being what it is, that’s not going to happen.) Instead, Marnell’s slimmed-down second phase will likely consist merely of the 1,000 additional hotel rooms he planned back in 2005, minus the 1,944 condos. A 10-screen cinema was also on Marnell’s wish list in the early going. Were the casino-hotel to churn up raw land next to the new event pavilion or cannibalize one of the outlying parking lots, there’s plenty of room for still further augmentation of M Resort.
Nowadays, M is the property of Penn National Gaming, which is allied with mall developer Taubman Cos., were the new phase to happen. Our best source in the real industry says the project is "still alive." But Penn is a bit distracted right now. It’s just opened two casinos in Ohio and has applied for one in Philadelphia, as well as another in western Massachusetts. It’s also coming off a costly ($45 million) and bruising fight against casino expansion in Maryland, an electoral bout which saw M on the losing end.
Furthermore, the company is trying to split itself into a property-owning-and-renting real estate investment trust (or REIT) and a casino-operating company. The latter would retain ownership of a few Penn casinos, including M. However, Penn’s lone Vegas foothold may be a priority item but it’s one that’s clearly been moved to a back burner for the immediate future.
