{"id":137,"date":"2009-04-20T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/4\/20\/Station-ixnays-expansions"},"modified":"2009-11-09T13:33:32","modified_gmt":"2009-11-09T21:33:32","slug":"station-ixnays-expansions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/station-ixnays-expansions\/","title":{"rendered":"Station ixnays expansions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stick a fork in Castaways Station<\/strong> — the forlorn patch of Fremont Street land is on the block … albeit at a considerable markup. Station Casinos<\/strong>, according to The Associated Press, is asking for $39.5 million on a vacant 30-acre lot for which it paid $33.7 million in late 2004<\/a>. Good luck finding any takers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Castaways Station, we never knew ye<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The ’04 transaction illustrates Station’s profilgate tendencies. Not only did it pay a markup of $900,000 on the Castaways’ market value, Station graced the owners of the Longhorn<\/strong> and Bighorn<\/strong> casinos with $12 million more in walking-away money.\u00a0 After that, Station imploded the rickety old casino, commissioned a rendering of a new, $90 million replacement from local architect Ed Vance<\/strong> and made cryptic noises about redeveloping the site at some unspecified future date. When I asked<\/a> Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese<\/strong> (in whose district the ex-Castaways sits) about the status of “Castaways Station,” the company became incredibly umbrageous and all “How dare you?”<\/p>\n

In addition to the Castaways site<\/strong>, which Station appears to have grabbed mainly to keep it away from anybody else, two<\/span> four additional plots are on the market. These are<\/span> include an eight-acre chunk near Boulder Station<\/strong> and nearly five acres next to Sunset Station<\/strong>. This removes any doubt as to why Station keeps dickering for extensions with its bondholders: It’s trying to raise cash ASAP so it can outbid the $950 million hostile-takeover offer that Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s got on the table.<\/p>\n

(Click here<\/a> for previews of Station’s big land auction, including sites at the Ann Road\/Sloan Land and Sunset & Lindell roads intersections. If the Castaways parcel also includes parking lots that previous owners leased from Jackie Gaughan<\/strong>, that may well rationalize the price increase.)<\/p>\n

On the subject of high-speed rail<\/strong>, if you’re a skeptic or simply doubt that it’s a panacea for choked highways to and from Las Vegas, you’ll find some comfort here<\/a>. Though the writer makes some thought-provoking, however, seems of the opinion that we should do nothing, so I invite him to spend a Sunday in bumper-to-bumper I-15 traffic, heading back into California one inch at a time.<\/p>\n

One reader suggests a solution in the form of a drastic increase in high-end buses serving the SoCal-LV corridor. Assuming that’s feasible, would you make use of it? (It could do wonders for the rental-car business at either end of the trip.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stick a fork in Castaways Station — the forlorn patch of Fremont Street land is on the block … albeit at a considerable markup. Station Casinos, according to The Associated Press, is asking for $39.5 million on a vacant 30-acre … 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":[88,60,51,57,100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"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=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}