What took them so long? That has to be the operative question now that Trump Entertainment Resorts owner Marc Lasry and CEO Robert Griffin have belatedly put Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino on the market, at an undisclosed price. (Probably the $35 million that Griffin needs to re-do Trump Taj Mahal.) The timing of the sale may have something to do with Hard Rock International‘s planned mini-casino hitting a snag. Considering the $300 million cost of a ’boutique’ casino in Atlantic City, a fixer-upper like Trump Plaza could come at a tenth of the price, leaving lots of moolah for physical improvements.
Whoever the prospective buyers are, Lasry and Griffin should have taken this course long ago. Instead they chose to 
run Trump Plaza as a kind of charitable endeavor, a money-losing ($1.5 million in 1Q12) drag anchor on the company. The desired buyer would have a “better balance sheet” than Trump, said Griffin (left), indirectly acknowledging how empty his and Lasry’s bullish talk has been. At least they’ve (temporarily) put a sock in all that bluster about expanding into other markets by purchasing distressed gaming assets. One “distressed” casino after another has come on the market and Trump has stood pat. (It can at least revel in the belated win of a five-year-old grudge match with the United Auto Workers, which had attempted to organize Trump dealers.)
Norton, you’re the greatest! Griffin’s speech painted an unexciting picture for 2012: more cost-cutting and a 12% interest rate on corporate debt do not inspire confidence. Then there’s the matter of company albatross Donald Trump. As though channeling S&G, casino consultant Steve Norton told it like it is: The Donald must go.”I feel it is more of a negative in Atlantic City than a positive,” he said of the played-out Trump brand. “I just don’t think it brings anything to the table. They’ve been bankrupt three times.” Since the Trump portfolio once encompassed five casinos and will soon shrink to one, it’s impossible to argue with that assessment.
Interestingly, Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.), having snubbed the East Coast Gaming Conference, tiptoed in and out of Atlantic City to address the Laborer’s International Union of North America 2012 Eastern Region Conference and tease significant new Boardwalk investment. Assembled casino boffins had to make to do with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R), who offered reassuring, stay-the-course rhetoric for assembled executives. In other words, Christie may be halfway out the door to Washington, D.C. (or is acting that way) but you’ve still got me. Perhaps she’d like to warm up by going a few rounds with state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D) on the importance to Atlantic City of Internet wagering.
One of Gary Loveman’s myriad bad decisions was the 2006 purchase of Aladdin-ruined London Clubs International for $500 million, intended as a shortcut to getting the United Kingdom‘s sole “supercasino” (which the government withdrew under fire). Years ago, it was reported that then-Harrah’s Entertainment was trying to trade LCI for a minority stake in Rank PLC. Now cash-strapped Caesars Entertainment is trying to unload its ’06 acquisition for $253 million. Given the clearance price, potential buyers are quickly materializing. Renewed talks with Rank, however, went nowhere — possibly because of a rumored, $95 million spinoff of South African Emerald Resort & Casino. But, for $158 million, you can still have 10 British casinos and two in (yikes!) Egypt, if you crave risky investments in Islamofascistic countries.
Jeffrey Soffer’s swath of destruction on the Las Vegas Strip has broadened to snuff out the posh Stirling Club. Soffer ruined the property’s outdoor atmosphere long ago by throwing up the monumentally fugly Fontainebleau parking garage behind it. Would-be Stirling Club savior David Atwell has a long track record of selling unpromising Vegas assets to European real-estate dabblers, so it will interesting to see who he lands to put the shine back into the Stirling.
