Wall Street analysts are initiating coverage of Red Rock Resorts and they like what they see. JP Morgan‘s Joseph Greff put a $25 price target on the stock, emboldened in part by 
RRR’s acquisition of the Palms and its growing pipeline of management fees from Native American casinos. He also cited Station’s 400-acre land bank in the Las Vegas and Reno areas, which created the prospect of high return-on-investment properties and the advantage of controlling/preventing most new LV Locals capacity.” Observing that Red Rock has the largest market share (43%) of resident Las Vegas gamblers and that 90% of Las Vegans live within five miles of a Red Rock-owned property, he added that the “market has benefitted and should continue to benefit from a stable supply environment and from improving macro trends in the Clark County, LV economy, where key growth drivers such as population, jobs, wages, retiree base, and home prices are all trending positively.”
Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli added “we trust LV locals fundamentals will continue to accelerate in the near term and remain sound over the medium term, and hence, we rate shares Buy.” He noted the same favorable conditions as Greff. True, some of that land bank includes duds (“Losee Station” and the old Castaways site) that Red Rock has been trying to unload, but it also contains strategically valuable sites, including two in Reno, as well as a portable license for a hotel-free casino, one of the lesser-known weapons in the RRR arsenal. True, Station has been a fairly passive company these last few years — but who saw that Palms acquisition coming?
* Bavarian Brewery, symbol of Kentucky‘s failed flirtation with casino gambling, has survived another near-death experience. Kenton County Circuit Court Judge Patricia 
Summe has ruled that the city of Covington was within its rights by blocking an attempt by owner Columbia Sussex to demolish the century-old structure. “There is a great use and user out there somewhere for that piece of property,” said City Manager Larry Klein, exulting in the decision. ColSux argues that the only way to unlock the value of the property is to tear down the building, an argument that has failed time and again. ColSux CEO William J. Yung has only himself to blame for the situation, having put the cart before the horse by purchasing Bavarian Brewery without waiting to see if casino gambling would have any traction with Kentucky lawmakers. (It didn’t.)
* In an attempt to make a booking enquiry at Caesars Palace last Friday, I was kept on hold for 10 minutes before I gave up. That’s Caesars Entertainment for you: Where the customer almost matters.
* Congratulations to the Peppermill Casino Spa in Reno on its 45th anniversary. Kudos also to the property for generating all its domestic and mechanical heat from geothermal wells on the property, pointing the way toward the future.
* Seen last week at Pizza Lotto (mediocre) at the El Cortez, a corpulent man with a beer bottle in one hand and a pitcher of more beer in the other. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
