Do You Think the Seminoles Will Buy the Colorado Belle in Laughlin?

May 13—“The transaction removes any restrictions placed on Hard Rock International from developing, owning, licensing, managing or operating any Hard Rock-branded casino and integrated resort within Southern Nevada’s Clark County”; May 19–“Laughlin's Colorado Belle Closes Permanently.” Could the Seminoles get a fire sale price and pick up the property that Marnell Gaming let deteriorate for the last decade? Isn't that what Hard Rock did with the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City?

Plus, at the bottom of the answer is your link to the new poll on the mob era compared to the modern era.

We don’t doubt that the Hard Rock could turn around the Colorado Belle. We also seriously doubt that they’ll bother.

Colorado Belle is pretty small potatoes from Hard Rock’s standpoint — as is the entire Laughlin market. The company, owned by the Seminole Indians, is fresh off the debut of its guitar-shaped hotel in Hollywood, Florida (just in time for the Super Bowl). It’s also enjoying tremendous success with its $500 million reinvention of Trump Taj Mahal as Hard Rock Atlantic City. In the latter market, Hard Rock abandoned a plan for a built-from-scratch casino, finding it almost as cost-efficient to simply buy the Taj and remake it beyond recognition.

While Clark County does include Laughlin, Hard Rock does not lack for options on the Strip. It’s a prospective buyer in a sale-friendly market. Caesars Entertainment has announced its intention to shed one and maybe two Strip resorts when Eldorado Resorts takes over. That puts Planet Hollywood — a Hard Rock-style property if ever there were one — into play. The Cromwell would be too small for Hard Rock ambitions, but the Flamingo and Paris would not. (The physical plant of Paris is twinned with that of Bally’s as a cost-saving measure, so that could be an issue.)

In addition, Gaming & Leisure Properties is actively shopping the Tropicana, which has seen a great deal of renovation of late.

Real estate investment trust Blackstone Group has had talks already with the Seminoles about selling the Cosmopolitan, so that has to be considered up for grabs, and MGM Resorts International is rumored to be putting the Mirage on the block.

If Hard Rock is looking for a fixer-upper, there’s the on-off-on-again-off-again Fontainebleau/Drew hulk by the Las Vegas Convention Center.

So Hard Rock has plenty of opportunity in the heart of Casinoland without scraping the bottom of the Laughlin barrel.

Plus, here's your link to the new poll on the mob era compared to the modern era.

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Comments

Jackie Jun-24-2020

All comments made regarding this poll

made on the sixteenth and today lead to one inescapable fact, age.  Those who experienced the 50's and 60's and also saw the decline leading up to 2020 will always chose the Mob days.  Those who didn't experience Las Vegas until the 70's and beyond will always choose the status quo based on erroneous feelings of dangerous mobsters burying people in the desert as a consequence for any winner.  However, these are mute points as the pandemic is already changing Las Vegas into a new and unrecognizable creature, one in which attendance is sparse at best and insufficient to produce profits.  I would predict that corporate casinos who do not adapt quickly will suffer bankruptcy.

Kevin Lewis Jun-24-2020

Laughlin

You gotta love Laughlin! Where else can you go where the temperature and the average age of visitors are both over 100?

KennyA Jun-24-2020

Forever young

I guess you will never age.  You are so lucky Kevin to be the only person to never get old.

Question of the Day - 24 June 2020

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