Who Owns the Downtown Grand? | Las Vegas Advisor

So who owns the Downtown Grand now and why do you think it's up for sale? It seemed busy the days we were there for the blackjack and slot tournaments, but was that just the results of LVA participation?

The Downtown Grand was and remains the property of CIM Group, founded in 1994 by two Israelis and an investment banker. According to Wiki, CIM "invests in commercial property on behalf of large institutions, such as pensions. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned $29.2 billion worth of commercial property."

Fifth Street Gaming operates Downtown Grand in a partnership with CIM. Fifth Street Gaming owns and operates four other Las Vegas gaming locations, including Ojos Locos in North LV.

FSG management was tight-lipped about the Downtown Grand being up for sale, perhaps due to recent media coverage. The for-sale status was originally reported in VitalVegas; we did some sleuthing and smoked out a listing on Berkadia.com.

The alleged asking price was $180 million. However, the listing quickly vanished. We don’t know why the Grand went on and off the market so quickly. The operators didn’t, clearly, want to discuss it with us.

So here's some speculation.

It’s possible that CIM was testing the waters, to check for any interest in a one-off hotel-casino one block off Fremont Street. Or perhaps ownership wants to take its profit out of the physical property or to dissolve its partnership with FSG and is selling the DTG to do so. Or maybe CIM wants Fifth Street Gaming to buy the joint. Fifth Street Gaming might even want to end its management contract and CIM is taking the opportunity to offload the entire investment. Whatever the reason, neither CIM nor Fifth Street Gaming is telegraphing it -- if it even is for sale anymore.

As for attendance at the Grand, vis a vis the recently canceled blackjack and slot tourneys (with Anthony Curtis and Andrew Hunt participating most weeks), Director of Casino Marketing Tony Barbato said that what you saw is pretty normal.

“It’s hard to estimate attendance based on a particular event,” said Barbato. “But we did see a bit of a dip. Thankfully, June has been kind [even without the tournaments]. The people are coming in a lot stronger than they were in April.”

Which may explain, at least in part, why the mini-blackjack tournaments were discontinued …

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Comments

Andrew Krum Jul-05-2024

Grand GM?

Any word on what the "old" GM Andrew is doing now? He implemented so many creative ideas.

James Ord Jul-05-2024

Downtown Grand

Stayed in April and again in June
Difference no room service in June
And no bottled water in the room
And of course the VP changes at the bar

Kevin Lewis Jul-05-2024

Blunder

During my recent stay in early June, the place seemed borderline deserted, even though the rest of downtown was hopping. I think the owners aren't willing to face the reality that people aren't going to come over there without an incentive. They apparently thought that they could attract people with good stuff, pull the rug out from under them, and they would keep coming anyway. Wrong-o.

Hoppy Jul-05-2024

Which may explain  . . .

Would someone please clarify.

Hoppy Jul-05-2024

Boost

So . . .DTG was using the tournaments to boost attendance?

Kevin Lewis Jul-05-2024

Yep

That was part of their strategy to attract more customers, which included a pretty heavy partnership with LVA, for a little while, at least. Not so long ago, they even tried putting in +EV video poker, though they got descended on in short order by the local scroungers and pulled the plug on that.

The tournaments didn't cost them jack diddly, since the prizes were paid for by players' entry fees. And naturally, people came before or stayed after and played, ate, and drank there. It WORKED. And then they killed it. Idiots.

Hoppy Jul-05-2024

Idiots

In my dictionary, next to the word idiots, is a picture of the DTG.

sunny78 Jul-05-2024

biz

It's a business first, give away to the cheap-sters, not even last on the list. So obviously it didn't work, aka, didn't drive the bottom line. And that's all one needs to know.

Deke Castleman Jul-06-2024

This in via email

Asked our current host Brin who is right under Eric the Gen Manager about the sale, and she said that "We go up for sale every 3-5 years because of their corporate company CIM. Everyone does a walk through because they get open access to the books. But its a slim chance anyone is actually legitimately looking to buy." Well always talk to the bartenders since they always seem to be in the know and one said Plaza was looking and Derek Stevens was also looking but apparently has 3 casinos already and I don't know if there is a limit to how many you can own downtown but he was out for whatever reason.

Carey Jul-06-2024

Tourneys got me in…

I showed up for the tourneys, and at least played enough to get parking, but usually more 😳. Haven’t been back since.

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