{"id":939,"date":"2008-03-03T10:31:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/3\/3\/Columbia-Sussex-dodges-bullet"},"modified":"2008-03-03T10:31:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T18:31:00","slug":"columbia-sussex-dodges-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/columbia-sussex-dodges-bullet\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia Sussex dodges bullet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, Columbia Sussex<\/b> is in default on $960 million in debt, says a Delaware court<\/a>. But it's not in immediate<\/i> default, giving the hotelier at least another month to wriggle out of that tight spot. However, a source for the Las Vegas Sun<\/i> says the verdict “is probably the death of Columbia Sussex's equity interest” in the Las Vegas Tropicana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If a receiver has to be appointed, it won't happen a moment too soon. The LV Trop has fallen into dire condition, seemingly more through indifference than anything else, and parts of it are appallingly filthy and\/or dilapidated. It's several decades behind the rest of the Strip. Even though people like to deride Circus Circus<\/a>, Jay Sarno<\/b>'s labyrinthine monument to coulrophobia<\/a>, it's at least 100X nicer than is the Trop at present.<\/p>\n

One potential buyer Casino Aztar<\/b><\/i>, in Evansville, Ind., has been tipped<\/a>. Racino owner Centaur Inc.<\/b> could make a logical suitor for the riverboat. The Indiana market has been diluted by the addition of racinos and a casino resort at French Lick, the latter hitting Casino Aztar<\/i> fairly hard. And Centaur's Jim Brown<\/b> used to run Casino Aztar<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But Centaur is apparently close to exhausting its $1 billion gaming-acquisition fund; with Kentucky taking a good, hard look at legalizing casinos, a Hoosier State riverboat on the Kentucky border just might not be the prize purchase it once was. And Columbia Sussex may have less than a month to cut a deal before its Indiana license is yanked. (Currently, Casino Aztar<\/i> is operating with a staggering number of job vacancies<\/a>, including internal auditor and director of security.)<\/p>\n

More and more, Columbia Sussex's overambitious attempt to absorb Aztar Corp.<\/b> is looking like one of the biggest debacles in casino history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Columbia Sussex is in default on $960 million in debt, says a Delaware court. But it's not in immediate default, giving the hotelier at least another month to wriggle out of that tight spot. However, a source for the Las … 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":[15,68,116,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"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=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}