{"id":10944,"date":"2013-06-06T12:01:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T20:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10944"},"modified":"2013-06-06T12:56:18","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T20:56:18","slug":"for-sale-one-mall-slightly-used-sheldons-big-buyback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/for-sale-one-mall-slightly-used-sheldons-big-buyback\/","title":{"rendered":"For sale: One mall, slightly used; Sheldon’s big buyback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Buried at the bottom of a J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst rep0rt on meetings with MGM Resorts International<\/strong> executives was a real corker: “[W]we would not be surprised to see MGM look to monetize some of CityCenter<\/strong>\u2019s asset base, for example Crystals<\/strong>, its retail mall,” whose net operating income is a measly $40 million. Morgan’s Joseph Greff<\/strong> thinks the moribund, super-high-end, l0w-traffic mall could fetch $800 million at resale and boost MGM share values. Although Greff characterized customer spending and hotel bookings along the Strip as recovering in “modest, baby-step improvements,” that’s overshadowed by a 20% leap in visitation and unspecified growth in customer largesse at MGM Grand<\/strong>, all thanks to Hakkasan<\/strong>. As for Crystals, it was a bad idea whose time had gone before it opened. Be seeing ya.<\/p>\n

\"\"Good news, better news at Sands<\/strong>. The company disclosed late yesterday that it would repurchase $2 billion in shares, over a multi-year period<\/a>. It’s not clear what, if any, impact this will have on the company’s myriad capital-intensive projects. The money’s coming in hand over fist these days<\/a>. (Although the dizzying, $35 billion<\/em> cost of EuroVegas<\/strong> makes me wonder what Sands execs are snorting when they project a 20% ROI on it.) And, after being left dangling by the Macao<\/strong> government (as the latter loves to do, especially to U.S.-based firms), Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> finally got the green light to sell 286 condos at the Four Seasons<\/strong>, within Sands Cotai<\/strong>, eventually bringing in at least $775 million, analysts speculate, perhaps $1 billion.\u00a0 The abortive St. Regis<\/strong> “tower” on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, however, remains an amputated stump with no resumption in sight. Ever. Which reminds me …<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was asked about<\/strong> the prospect for casino legalization in Japan<\/strong>. Well, it’s been “imminent” since at least 2005, to hear the experts tell it. And yet, the \"\"Japanese parliament has never shown a great appetite for casino gambling, even in times of dire economic need. Prospects were complicated further when the Japan Restoration Party<\/strong> rolled out a casino bill this week<\/a>. The JRP is but a very small presence but its move makes casinos a hot-button issue ahead of July’s elections. Supporters had been hoping to keep the whole matter on the back burner until after voters went to the polls.<\/p>\n

Gotta do a<\/strong> quarterly USA Today<\/em> update\u00a0 for their online travel guides, so if my news coverage is spotty for the next 10 days or so, please be indulgent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried at the bottom of a J.P. Morgan analyst rep0rt on meetings with MGM Resorts International executives was a real corker: “[W]we would not be surprised to see MGM look to monetize some of CityCenter\u2019s asset base, for example Crystals, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,28,14,4,22,62,11,12,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10944"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10953,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944\/revisions\/10953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}