{"id":8774,"date":"2012-04-05T16:42:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T00:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8774"},"modified":"2012-04-05T16:42:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T00:42:24","slug":"trump-plaza-reprieved-stirrings-at-sahara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/trump-plaza-reprieved-stirrings-at-sahara\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Plaza reprieved; Stirrings at Sahara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Good news for Trump Plaza<\/strong>: It’s off the “death watch,” having dramatically reversed its fortunes<\/a> last year. Although revenues continue to decline, gross operating profit swung from a $2 million loss in 2010 to a nearly $3 million gain last year. This is terrific news for Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong>, which has been effectively subsidizing the Plaza out of Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong>‘s operating profits. CEO Robert Griffin<\/strong> is obviously doing something right. However, the new, grind-joint strategy at The Atlantic Club<\/strong> (aka<\/em> the immortal ACH<\/strong>) had better start yielding improved EBITDA soon. It posted a $20 million operating loss last year, during the same period that the late Dennis Gomes<\/strong> was taking Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> from $18.5 million in the hole to a $14 million deficit … not out of danger but a significant step in the right direction. Another rescue project, the Golden Nugget<\/strong>, narrowed its operating losses roughly 25%.<\/p>\n

The occupancy-rate trophy<\/strong> goes to Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong>, at 93%. It was also one of the few other casinos to report cash-flow gains, along with the Taj and Showboat Casino Hotel<\/strong>. Despite a 7% cash flow decline, Borgata<\/strong> was crying all the way to the bank, its operating profit of $162.5 million being nearly double that of runner-up Caesars. Tears might really be in order at Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong> (down 32%) and weeping is definitely called for at Tropicana Casino & Resort<\/strong>, where operating profit was nearly halved last year. Two words: Don Johnson<\/strong>. One number: $8 million (the amount for which Johnson took the Trop in 2011). Tonight, Unite-Here<\/strong> hits the bricks<\/a>, picketing the Trop. Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Anthony Rodio<\/strong> certainly has a Pandora’s boxful of problems on his hands.<\/p>\n

\"\"As the Sahara turns<\/strong>. Prospects for a $744 million makeover of the defunct Sahara<\/strong> improved markedly this week when Moody’s Investor Service<\/strong> gave a thumbs-up to a proposed, $300 million debt offering. Local news reports imply<\/a> that owner Sam Nazarian<\/strong> will be securing the debt with revenue from his nightclub empire. Moody’s likes to cite Nazarian’s record\u00a0 in the restaurant and nightclub businesses as an augury of success, but in the casino biz Nazarian has been a dismal failure. The planned SLS Las Vegas<\/strong> (sounds like a freighter, not a resort) is targeted “just below luxury,” whatever that means … low high-end? Upper mid-market?<\/p>\n

More to the point, some of that $744 million should go toward a fleet of shuttles, to get warm bodies from the south Strip past the Fontainebleau<\/strong>-area ghetto and up into SLS’ planned two<\/em> nightclubs. The degeneration of the surrounding area is also going to depress Sahara Sam’s ADRs right off the bat. And he’d damned better stop prevaricating and apply for a gaming license or this is all just Kabuki theater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good news for Trump Plaza: It’s off the “death watch,” having dramatically reversed its fortunes last year. Although revenues continue to decline, gross operating profit swung from a $2 million loss in 2010 to a nearly $3 million gain last … 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":[3,28,142,42,14,4,59,7,54,9,129,19,100,21,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8774"}],"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=8774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8779,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8774\/revisions\/8779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}