{"id":14240,"date":"2014-08-04T10:14:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T18:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14240"},"modified":"2022-08-05T05:16:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:16:15","slug":"packer-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/packer-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Packer returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"packer\"<\/a>James Packer<\/strong> is back. Undoubtedly encouraged by the recent groundswell of development on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, he’s bought\u00a0the New Frontier<\/strong> site for a casino development<\/a> that will be underwritten by the Oaktree Capital Management<\/strong> hedge fund. Construction is to begin late next year, with the goal of finishing by 2018<\/a>. The project will be overseen former Steve Wynn<\/strong> sidekick Andrew Pascal<\/strong>, whose former boss happens to work across the street. In the abstract it looks solid. It’s that Packer brings so much troubled karma with him: He invested heavily in the U.S. casino industry at its financial peak and got wiped out<\/a>, to the tune of $1.85 billion. (He only just settled a lawsuit with Fontainebleau<\/strong> lenders two months ago.) Every deal he made went sideways. His success in the Pacific Rim hasn’t translated to American markets.<\/p>\n

At least he’s gotten a great bargain\u00a0on Strip real estate, snaring\u00a0the 35-acre New Frontier site for $8 million an acre. Taken by itself, the Vegas deal “seems to make sense” according to ATI Asset Management<\/strong>‘s top researcher, David Liu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Crown<\/a>The question is, where does it fall in a very crowded queue of Packer projects? His Crown Resorts<\/strong>\u00a0is committed to new hotels in Perth<\/strong>, Macao<\/strong> and Barangaroo<\/strong>\u00a0(pictured<\/em>)\u00a0plus resorts in Sri Lanka<\/strong>\u00a0and in Brisbane<\/strong>. Then there’s the $5 billion that Packer has promised to spend if he gets a casino deal in Japan<\/strong>. Is the media heir getting overextended again? As one Crown investor cautioned,\u00a0“It’s nice to have the options, but you still need to exercise care.” Even so, it makes a lot more sense than buying The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong>, a bad investment idea with which Packer had a fiddle before regaining his senses.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

* Today’s the final day for bids<\/a> on Revel<\/strong>, which Atlantic City<\/strong> Mayor Don Guardian<\/strong> has six potential suitors. (Interestingly, Guardian says \"Sweeney\"<\/a>there’s also interest in buying Showboat<\/strong> from Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> but none that he’s aware of in Trump Plaza<\/strong> — the living ghost of Donald Trump<\/strong> continues to hex that casino.)<\/p>\n

State Senate President Steven Sweeney<\/strong> (left<\/em>),\u00a0meanwhile, continues to work on his two-tiered reconfiguration of gambling in New Jersey<\/strong>. In it, developers would be empowered to build casinos outside of Atlantic City … provided they pay a much higher casino tax rate (Atlantic City’s is one of the lowest in the country) to subsidize the seaside resort. I wonder if that will fly: John Q. Entrepreneur may understandably\u00a0balk at being\u00a0obligated to pay the freight for struggling casinos on the Boardwalk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Packer is back. Undoubtedly encouraged by the recent groundswell of development on the Las Vegas Strip, he’s bought\u00a0the New Frontier site for a casino development that will be underwritten by the Oaktree Capital Management hedge fund. Construction is to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,103,66,59,7,22,96,171,62,157,32,31,9,169,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240"}],"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=14240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31503,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240\/revisions\/31503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}