{"id":7867,"date":"2011-11-04T10:38:38","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T18:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7867"},"modified":"2011-11-04T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T18:45:11","slug":"another-victory-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/another-victory-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Another victory like this …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In one of the most Pyrrhic victories in casino-industry history, Colony Capital<\/strong> has managed to prevent foreclosure<\/a> of the former Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong>. But the cost of victory outweighs the gain. Colony got itself out of this scrape by giving away its Bally’s Tunica<\/strong> and Resorts Tunica<\/strong> casinos, regarded as the best performers in Colony’s crumbling casino portfolio. In return, the mortgage on ACH<\/strong> — which sounds like a sports injury — will be wiped clean. Lenders get 2,386 slots, 35 table games and 439 hotel rooms in Tunica<\/strong>. (Let the bidding for the management contract commence!) Colony retains 2,400 slots, 114 table games and 809 hotel rooms in Atlantic City<\/strong> … but at a property that’s 12% off last year’s market-lagging pace.<\/p>\n

\"\"One of the conditions of the swap is that Colony and its underwriters recapitalize ACH(ooo!) to the tune of $24 million and change. Aside from paying the electric bill, Colony might do well to retire the unpaid bills and pension obligations that have stymied its attempts to sell the place for 10 months. The former Golden Nugget Atlantic City<\/strong> is on pace to lose $22 million this year alone, so investing $24 million ($9 million of which is contingent upon an insurance claim<\/a>)\u00a0 is like trying to stem a flood with a sieve. It may be able to keep operating for another year, as Colony will soon argue<\/a> before the New Jersey Casino Control Commission<\/strong>, but how longer past that? If the free market hasn’t selected this property for extinction, the best survival tactic would be remove all encumberances and sell it ASAP, for whatever can be gotten. ACH COO Michael Frawley<\/strong> claims there was “no shortage of [potential] buyers” but he just couldn’t find “the right fit for the company” — which sounds like a load of bunk to me. Judging by the bargains they struck, neither Tilman Fertitta<\/strong> nor Dennis Gomes<\/strong> got the memo that it’s a seller’s market on the Boardwalk this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"The $513 million that Colony paid for the A.C. Hilton is money that neither CEO Tom Barrack<\/strong> (right<\/em>) nor his investors will ever see again. However, Barrack is trying to claw some of it back from widows and orphans, demanding a refund of monies disbursed to the Casino Reinvestment & Development Authority<\/strong>. Blech. Hopefully he’ll soon be gone. Before that happens, that silly-ass “ACH” moniker may be retired, too. So it’s, on balance, a good day for Atlantic City.<\/p>\n

\"\"Whoever took the “under”<\/strong> on how long it would be before the political establishment started pounding the table for Class III gambling at Resorts World New York<\/strong>, congratulations. Already, a significant coalition is fomenting an upgrade<\/a> of the week-old Aqueduct<\/strong> racino and wailing that it is “losing gaming dollars” to adjoining states. Leaving premature hysteria aside, it makes no sense of New York State<\/strong> have almostbutnotquiteVegas-style casinos. Now that the most powerful man in New York, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver<\/strong> (D, left<\/em>) has signaled his approval, it’s a question of when, not if.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of the most Pyrrhic victories in casino-industry history, Colony Capital has managed to prevent foreclosure of the former Atlantic City Hilton. But the cost of victory outweighs the gain. Colony got itself out of this scrape by giving … 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":[3,28,142,120,35,101,33,111,25,129,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867"}],"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=7867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7871,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867\/revisions\/7871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}