According to The Associated Press, locals giant Station Casinos has snapped up 40 acres in the fast-growing Skye Canyon suburb, in the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley. Station got the dirt dirt-cheap: 40 gaming-zoned acres for $36 million. The AP speculated that this might be an attempt to cock-block competitors (Boyd Gaming wasn’t mentioned but couldn’t have been out of 
mind either), never mind develop on its own. To our mind, the question is where Skye Canyon falls in Station’s long queue of delayed or deferred projects, led by Durango Station. The company still hasn’t found a buyer, according to the story, for its Texas Lane property near South Point, site of an abandoned project. No word on the Castaways site or the similarly discarded Losee Road parcel. Whatever the case, Station’s land bank can keep the company in new development for at least a decade to come.
You can decide how this squares with Scott Roeben‘s report that the brothers Feritta are looking to liquidate Station in favor of buying an NFL team. (Why? Las Vegas is about to have one, albeit slightly used.) At least they’re not selling it to themselves because that didn’t work out so hot last time — except for the Fertittas. A modified version of the rumor has Station hanging onto its big-capex projects: Palace Station and the Palms. To our way of thinking, the Skye Canyon purchase indicates that Station is going to stick to its knitting but we’ve been wrong before.
Roeben also reports that Jackie Robinson‘s All-Debt, er, All-Net Arena is on the verge of getting some overseas financing. While an arena without an anchor tenant seems like a cart-first horse-second proposition, construction activity on the North Strip would throw a lifeline to Alex Meruelo at SLS Las Vegas, bringing him a thirsty, next-door clientele while he figures out how to reposition SLS as a locals draw.
* If you’re planning to check out the Yayoi Kusama installations at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, here’s a primer on what to expect. Fortunately, the exhibit runs through April 28. Be sure to bring your sense of wonder.
* It may be too little, too late but Vegas casinos are putting at least a temporary hold on much-hated resort fees. The Fertittas are waiving resort fees at the Palms, as is The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas 
(rumored to be on Hard Rock International‘s Christmas wish list). Parking fees went over like a lead balloon and, should the no-resort-fee offers move the needle, we might actually see a reversal of this customer-hostile trend. Then they can move on to “ticket processing fees” and “convenience fees” that turn a $39 show ticket into a $55 proposition. Anything that changes “Las Vegas casino” from a synonym for “clip joint” is A Good Thing. Roeben has an ingenious (and hilarious) suggestion for how the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority could spin the whole thing and it’s a campaign platform we heartily endorse.
The Palms just installed a three-part shark with each section weighing tons, making it a fairly permanent display. I can’t see them doing that if they were going to exit stage right. However, I could easily see them liquidating the properties other than Palms and Palace which had tons of money invested and with the possibility of the Rio sale could bring in a lot of money with Palace having land near for the building of a planned community.
Red Rock and Green Valley are self-explanatory and fit in nicely with a Skye Canyon approach. Also an advertisement popped up for a list of off-strip properties and activities on my feed not too long ago which is a brilliant idea on someone’s part. Long term wise the money IMO is to be made with those properties listed above not their original properties as evidence by the sale of the Cannery to a nearby property. The idea of an all inclusive resort near to the Strip without strip traffic sounds like a winner to me money wise.
I go to Laughlin every year because it’s so much cheaper. The resort fees are the biggest problem I have with Vegas. Then I get great comps in Laughlin. When I called to check on my Vegas comps I had none. I want to spend my money on the gaming floor not on a room I only use for sleep and who needs a gym after the work out on the strip!
Just tried to reserve a room at the Cosmopolitan because of the waived resort fees; they refused, told me it was $40 per night.
Like Beth Vincent, for the last few years we’ve been concentrating on Laughlin. They have three poker rooms; and Golden Nugget has a nice Blackjack tournament every couple of months, although it’s gone a little downhill recently. AFAIK, the only resort fee is at Harrah’s, and it’s no problem getting comped at a couple of other places.
In the Phoenix area we have several casinos as good as any on the Strip–or so I’ve heard, since I haven’t been to the Strip in years–and there’s a new one seven miles from the house that’s just adding a poker room.
We’ve paid resort fees a few times, like when we wanted to stay at Gold Coast for the WSOP and couldn’t get comped; but that’s the exception.
Just got back from a comped stay at the Orleans Thanksgiving weekend, and comp offers continue at least through February. So far, so good….