One Caesars Entertainment casino of many on the Las Vegas Strip remains theoretically for sale … but put your checkbooks away for the time being. While new CEO Tom Reeg has to make good on his promise to realize hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, he has decided now’s not the time to go to market with a Strip casino. What’s more, he’s right. The fizzled Tropicana Las Vegas sale and Skyvue auctions are clear indicators that this is a terrible juncture to be hawking Strip real estate, especially when you’re looking for at least a $500 million payday.
“As soon as we get to the other side of the virus and to more normal business levels, you should expect we’ll be thinking about that,” Reeg told investors, pushing the timeline of the sale out as much as 18 months. This must have greatly disappointed companies like Twin River Holdings that were all in a lather about having a Las Vegas Boulevard address. While hinting at further job cuts, Reeg said hotel occupancies were around 50% midweek and 70% on weekends (which are going to become even more important in the Las Vegas economic picture). Perhaps the best news of all for Caesars was that it only lost $100 million in the second quarter, an achievement bordering on the miraculous.
Imperial Palace was actually out of my price range for a room, their prices were close enough to the Desert Inn that you might as well spend the few extra bucks and stay at a super classy iconic gem of a hotel… Or go the cheaper route and stay at Barbary Coast, The Marina, Maxim, or the Shenandoah, which had no casino because they could not get a license… In the last few years the Imperial Palace was a smoke filled dark hell hole…