{"id":16605,"date":"2015-08-19T11:09:57","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16605"},"modified":"2023-01-27T04:53:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T12:53:51","slug":"sls-closed-by-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sls-closed-by-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"SLS: Closed by 2016?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s the stark implication of some remarks by owner Stockbridge Capital Partners<\/strong> about SLS Las Vegas<\/strong>, which continues to generate negative return on investment. Howard Stutz<\/strong> took a deep <\/a>\"sls-pic\"<\/a>dive<\/a> into the numbers and he must have required\u00a0a bathysphere<\/a> to find them. In 2Q15, SLS lost $49 million, for a grand total of $84 million year to date. Stockbridge made three cash infusions, for a total of $13 million, during the summer months, when one would expect SLS to be performing at its best.<\/p>\n

Stockbridge said it would keep picking up the tab through Dec. 31, leaving the distinct impression that it would close SLS if there’s not a miraculous turnaround by year’s end. After all, how long is it expected to pour money into a\u00a0failing resort with sub-zero\u00a0return? \u00a0Although Stockbridge spoke vaguely of cost cuts at SLS, it added that “there can be no assurance that such actions will be effective.” (Speaking of branding problems, James Packer<\/strong> is off to a bad start with alon<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Whistling past the graveyard, property President Scott Kreeger<\/strong> assured media that Stockbridge would masochistically hang in there until things improve, or something like that. He’s also hanging his \"Lucky_Dragon_Hotel___Casino_rednering_EV_A_Architects_12-4-2014.0\"<\/a>hopes on getting walk-in traffic from the obscure, little, $373 million Lucky Dragon Casino<\/strong>, which only began construction in May<\/a> (on the site formerly designated for condo\u00a0Allure<\/strong> tower two), which is ‘narrowcasting’ to Chinese and Asian players<\/a>. Before that it was lower interest rates that were going to turn the trick<\/a> and before that<\/em> it was foot traffic from\u00a0Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, where there is no construction activity to be seen. Taken all together, it’s a collective admission that SLS isn’t enough of a draw on its own. \"SLS_LV-Splash_v2\"<\/a>Casino revenue continues to be a distant third as a revenue source … only $9.5 million in the last quarter. In Atlantic City<\/strong> those kind of numbers get you put on the Death Watch. Kreeger would know, as that’s the kind of meager income he saw at Revel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, SLS is scrapping one nightclub (Life<\/strong>) and abandoning the buffet area altogether — such a waste of money and effort. While Stockbridge claimed SLS got a boost from being part of Hilton<\/strong>‘s Curio Collection<\/strong>, it can’t have helped that much, as SLS is looking for other hotel-loyalty programs on which to pin its hopes. At least the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> has stopped referring to Sam “The Sham” Nazarian<\/strong> as a “visionary,” so there’s some good news.<\/p>\n

* SLS isn’t the only company that’s downsizing. International Game Technology<\/strong> is deleveraging by selling empty land, doing a sale-and-leaseback on its corporate campus and unloading the company jet. (Ironic that IGT is doing the latter when its operations are more far-flung than ever.) No more personal junkets<\/a> for vice-chairwoman Patti Hart<\/strong>. Unlike SLS, IGT’s revenues are up, 36% in the second quarter no less.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations to Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> for racking up its best month ever in July. The casino grossed $46 million, pushing Parx<\/strong> \"bethlehem\"<\/a>Casino<\/strong> out of its traditional #1 spot in Pennsylvania<\/strong>.\u00a0“We’ve found a niche in table games, particularly with our Asian clientele.\u00a0The proximity to New York<\/strong> and New Jersey<\/strong> has proven to be a great advantage to us,” said property President Mark Juliano<\/strong>, who obviously didn’t get the memo from Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> that Sands Bethlehem was “a mistake.” (Care to eat those words, Shel?)\u00a0“Their table games numbers are unbelievable. No one else in Pennsylvania is even close,” said Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board<\/strong> spokesman Richard McGarvey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania casino revenues were up 7% last month and Parx grossed just shy of $46 million, easily outpacing Rivers Casino<\/strong>‘s \"harrahs-chester\"<\/a>$30 million. Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong>, Mohegan Sun<\/strong>, The Meadows<\/strong>, SugarHouse<\/strong> and Hollywood Casino at Penn National<\/strong> were all bunched together in the $24 million-$21 million range. The improved numbers at Harrah’s have to be heartening for Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, which has been losing market share to SugarHouse. Fighting to gain traction was Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>‘ resort casino, Lady Luck Nemacolin<\/strong>, which grossed $3 million-plus. Hey, that’s a good<\/em> month at SLS.<\/p>\n

* As it exits the Natchez<\/strong> casino market, Isle of Capri may be planning to sell its gaming barge for scrap. But first it wants a big-ass reduction in its property-tax assessment. Isle and Adams County<\/strong> are not only far apart on the latter, they can’t even agree on the purchase price of the scow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s the stark implication of some remarks by owner Stockbridge Capital Partners about SLS Las Vegas, which continues to generate negative return on investment. Howard Stutz took a deep dive into the numbers and he must have required\u00a0a bathysphere to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,18,4,120,7,29,85,96,53,35,167,91,101,69,95,157,162,12,195,31,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605"}],"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=16605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32254,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605\/revisions\/32254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}