{"id":8766,"date":"2012-04-04T15:11:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T23:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8766"},"modified":"2020-05-08T07:47:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T15:47:41","slug":"worst-operator-of-2011-gsas-wrong-amount-of-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/worst-operator-of-2011-gsas-wrong-amount-of-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Worst operator of 2011; GSA’s wrong amount of wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Worst of the year? That’d be Grand Station Casino<\/strong>, a former Harrah’s riverboat in Vicksburg<\/strong>, and its owners, Delta Development & Investments<\/strong>. They managed to parlay a $3.25 million steal of a casino that could have gone for $35 million<\/a> a few years ago into complete, encumberance-ridden failure. Even after Bally Technologies<\/strong> postponed a planned foreclosure sale (Delta owed Bally $3 million<\/a> for slot machines), Grand Station still closed last Wednesday, as General Manager Anthony Collins<\/strong> had employees shooed out of the building<\/a>. Now Delta has to hang its hopes on the possibility that developer Kenneth Bickford<\/strong>, who owns the (separately run) Grand Station Hotel<\/strong>, will pull their fat from the fire. However, when you own a defunct casino with no employees and debts out the wazoo<\/a>, your bargaining position is basically nil.<\/p>\n

What happens in Vegas<\/strong>, cost the head of the General Services Administration<\/strong> her job, along with those of multiple underlings. Ostensibly charged with saving taxpayer money, Martha Johnson<\/strong>‘s agency was splurging on a big Las Vegas<\/strong> blowout<\/a>. This puts the local power structure and boosters like the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority<\/strong> in an amusing quandary. To coin a phrase, What’s the right amount of wrong? As the Las Vegas Sun<\/em>‘s J. Patrick Coolican<\/strong> nailed it two years ago, “Here is where Las Vegas and the rest of the country part ways: We\u2019ve built an entire industry, indeed, an entire city, around out-of-towners blowing their discretionary income<\/em> …”<\/p>\n

\"\"So, the Powers That Be have to contrive a way to simultaneously applaud the GSA<\/a> for choosing to blow its dough in Sin City, while simultaneously denouncing the amount of dough-blowage. In return for a minimal price break on M Resort<\/strong> rooms, the casino-hotel was allowed to gouge the GSA for meals, in a public-sector\/private-sector back-scratching exercise. GSA administrators even disclosed their meeting budget to M execs, tacitly inviting the latter to overcharge. Consequently, Sen. Harry Reid<\/strong> (D-NV) finds himself having to triangulate between his previous statement<\/a> that President Barack Obama<\/strong> (D) should “lay off Las Vegas,” etc., and finding the appropriate degree of shock — shock, I tell you!<\/em> — over the GSA’s “lack of common sense.” He added, “I applaud President Obama for protecting taxpayer dollars and his understanding that the convention business is so important to Nevada<\/strong>‘s economy. Las Vegas is the best place in the world to hold a convention, and it’s understandable why people want to have business meetings here<\/em>” … so long as they don’t spend public money on mentalists, I guess.<\/p>\n

\"\"Old Sixty Votes’ GOP<\/strong> colleague, Sen. Dean Heller<\/strong> also felt compelled to put in a Chamber of Commerce-style plug, warning potential investigators that “it was not the location that caused the misuse of taxpayer funds. The convention services my state offers are the best in the world<\/em>.” (That should worth a round of campaign donations from every major casino in Nevada, except perhaps from cranky Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, who will surely somehow misconstrue it as a diss of Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>‘ convention facilities in Singapore<\/strong> and Macao<\/strong>.) The Review-Journal<\/em>‘s excellent Laura Carroll<\/strong>, along with Beltway<\/strong> scribe Peter Urban<\/strong>, had great fun tracing the Kama Sutra<\/strong>-like stances of Reid, Heller and others. The only winner appears to be Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, which is getting a whole mess of free publicity for M Resort out of this. If Penn coveted a naughtier image for the suburban property, now they have it.<\/p>\n

Turnaround at Aliante<\/strong>. Not everything that Texas Pacific Group<\/strong> and Apollo Management<\/strong> touch turns to rubble. The debt-for-equity swap that landed them Station Casinos<\/strong>‘ beached whale, Aliante Station<\/strong>, is already yielding dividends. The R-J<\/em> reports that the $662 million casino (which TPG\/Apollo got by assuming $378 million of debt) turned a $573K profit in the waning months of 2011. Gentlemen, my compliments.<\/p>\n

\"\"No progress yet<\/strong> on the water park that Station says it’s planning for the former site of Scandia Fun Center<\/strong>, one of several properties that were too-hastily vacated or demolished in anticipation of an ill-considered condo development. The good news, for vehicular enthusiasts, is that it means another summer’s worth of gear-grinding<\/a> at Dig This Vegas<\/strong>. For $249, you can spend 90 minutes tooling about in either an excavator or bulldozer (if you have a deep-seated urge to push dirt around). For $449, you get three hours and driving privileges on both vehicles. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.<\/p>\n

Memo to casino executives<\/strong>. Even the National Review<\/em>, in an analysis of the smallpox ward that is the Nevada real estate market pegs the solution as “Jobs and higher incomes<\/a>.” Big Gaming is expected to squeeze the Culinary Union<\/strong> on wages and benefits in the next round of collective bargaining, this summer. (It failed in Atlantic City<\/strong>, but expect them to try it anyway.) However, Las Vegas’ reliance on low-wage, service-oriented industries has a more than coincidental relationship to the anemic nature of its recovery to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worst of the year? That’d be Grand Station Casino, a former Harrah’s riverboat in Vicksburg, and its owners, Delta Development & Investments. They managed to parlay a $3.25 million steal of a casino that could have gone for $35 million … 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":[23,77,151,28,14,52,63,62,53,35,78,69,33,12,108,57,9,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8766"}],"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=8766"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27013,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8766\/revisions\/27013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}