Station, Greenspuns part company

For quite a while the relationship between Station Casinos and Greenspun Corp. has been in the “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” category, as the two bickered over the ownership and management of their casino joint ventures. Today they’re Splitsville and it’s division-of-property time. Although the ‘Spuns can still buy back into Green Valley Ranch, for now Station has sole custody of the $550 million Henderson-area megaresort, which will enter bankruptcy under a deal cut with creditors. The accord includes a provision whereby Fertitta Entertainment gets hired to manage the place, too. Sweet!

While $500 million is a slight discount compared to what the Fertittas and Greenspuns poured into the Ranch over the years, it’s still a steep price: in the 12X EBITDA range. Perhaps debtholders were able to extract that half-billion by threatening to sell the note: “Nice casino ya got there. I’d hate to see what Penn National Gaming would do to it.” With so many casinos changing hands for pennies under the distressed-debt-buyout strategy, it’d not be a threat to take lightly. For instance …

Another Fertitta/Greenspun casino could be forfeit following a default. Private-equity vultures are circling Aliante Station (left), as Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group negotiate a possible takeover. Do those names sound familiar? They’re the firms that made the incredibly rash astute decision to take Harrah’s Entertainment private for $31 billion, a transaction that will live in infamy. But they’ve learned. They bought Aliante debt on the cheap, then proceeded to put the squeeze on Station, much as they’ve been doing to George Maloof after Palms Place tanked.

For now, though, there’s no reason to fear that Aliante is going to become “Bill’s Gamblin’ Station” and ditch Boarding Pass in favor of Total Rewards. “The Fertittas would continue to manage Aliante under the proposed accord,” reports Bloomberg. So Station sheds some debt, offloads a $662 million beached whale of a casino and gets paid to keep managing it (in addition to saving face). It’s a win-win-win for Station brass.

After hopscotching around various North Las Vegas sites, Aliante Station incurred horrible construction-cost inflation. The Fertittas were trying to get out in front of a tidal wave of growth in the Vegas Valley … but the tide went out, leaving Aliante high and dry. Locals nicknamed it “Almost-empty Station.” Judging by the company’s hesitation to develop its Cactus Lane and Rhodes Ranch sites to the south and southwest of the Strip, Station won’t make that mistake again.

Whether from business acumen (filling a “dark” night) or civic-mindedness or some happy amalgam of both, Green Valley Ranch is hosting Wednesday-evening performances of Rent this month. Presented by startup RagTag Entertainment, Rent pulled in a cross-generational, capacity audience last night at the Ovation showroom. After such a robust turnout, S&G hopes this won’t be a one-off but a harbinger of a closer relationship between Station and the Las Vegas performing-arts community.