Station vs. Boyd IV: This time it's spite

Inside the wacky world that is Station Casinos' executive suite, business judgment is evidently trumped by getting even with your main adversary. How else to explain Station's eight-month push to get zoning approval for Losee Casino Station? The company is sitting on a 58-acre non-gaming parcel at the northeast corner of Craig and Losee roads.

In addition to needing a zoning variance, Station must also contend with North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon's stated opposition (which has softened a mite of late) to creating new gaming enterprise districts in NLV while several existing ones remain unexploited. Then again, Montandon is running for the GOP gubernatorial nod in 2010 and the Fertitta family are george Republican donors, so a change of heart may be in the offing.

As for this "Losee Casino Station," it's a project Station pulled out of its ass (and rather stealthily, at that). It has every appearance of being done to checkmate Boyd Gaming's adjoining Park Highlands project (the former "North Coast"), which Boyd obtained by agreeing to surrender the gaming entitlement on land it owned further south. As a business move, it makes scant sense.

Architect Ed Vance's design for Station Casinos' quickly forgotten Castaways site.

Surely major casino companies don't act out of pettiness and spite, I hear you say. Consider this: Durango Station remains in decade-long limbo and previously announced projects for Inspirada (in Henderson) and Cactus Lane, near South Point, are in a holding pattern — as are redevelopments of the Palace Station and Wild Wild West areas. And don't forget the long-mooted, long-deferred Castaways Station (or whatever that promised casino-restaurant will be called). Or that, just a short drive down Craig Road, new $662 million Aliante Station is trying to make its nut.

No, defying all logic, Losee Station has somehow risen to Priority #1 status. I wish I could put it more politely but Station is throwing a "cock block" on Boyd. The company's appetite for brinksmanship knows no bounds.