LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Big casino projects on the Strip usually involve some risk.
That's why Bally's Chairman Soo Kim said while the company is still moving forward with plans to build on the Tropicana property, they haven't ruled out selling their gaming and development rights.
"Of all the projects that we have in our portfolio, Vegas is the one with sort of the widest standard deviation of outcomes. I mean, you can do really well in Vegas and you can do really poorly whereas sort of the regional properties like Chicago and New York, they're much easier, much more easy to predict what the outcomes will be," Kim said during the ICE gaming industry conference in Barcelona last week. "Vegas has that sort of risk factor. Our response to that risk factor was hey, we're going to build this slowly. We are excited to build it. We aspire to be and continue to aspire to be a world-class gaming company and I think it's hard to be a world-class gaming company without Vegas. I'm not dying to do it [sell the rights] but again, never say never."
And when it comes to the first item on the company's Las Vegas wish list, it isn't a casino.
"To be completely frank, we're actually more focused on developing what is called the RED, or retail entertainment district, around the stadium to complement the traffic that the stadium brings, even before we build an integrated resort, hotel, and the casino," Chairman Soo Kim said. "It'll come in phases."
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According to a September press release, Bally's is planning on building a resort that has two luxury hotel towers with 3,000 rooms, which was have direct access to the ballpark and include a casino.
The company is also looking to add 500,000 square feet of retail, dining, and entertainment space along, which will include an entertainment venue that can host 2,500 guests.
There are still questions about project financing, mainly due to the cost of the company's projects in Chicago and New York City. The Bally's Bronx project is estimated to cost $4 billion while Bally's Chicago project is estimated to cost over $1.7 billion. The Las Vegas project is estimated to cost $1.19 billion. I reached out to Bally's to see if they had any updated information on the project, included financing. So far, they said there are no updates to share.
While Bally's has the gaming license and development rights for the Tropicana site, the land is owned by Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. In GLPI's last earnings call, Chairman and CEO Peter Carlino said they will only help fund certain components of the 26-acre development and won't pay for the entire thing.
It's a different arrangement compared to the deal the companies are working on together for Bally's Chicago casino and resort. In that deal, GLPI is providing over $2 billion.
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Over the last year, we've seen overall visitation numbers drop in Las Vegas but Kim said he believes in the long-term growth of our city.
"Vegas was just on fire coming back from COVID reopening. And so, I think that there was always going to be a lull and perhaps we're in it. But look, I would never be bearish on Vegas. I mean, Vegas is a town just laser-focused on continuing to reinvent itself," Kim said. "I mean, the Trop itself. This is the second oldest facility on the Strip with a ton of history. It's been in movies. James Bond movies about it, gangster movies about it. The Folies Bergère woman and all that stuff. The Rat Pack. We're like hey, we need to demo this so we can make room for a stadium and people are like okay. Let's go."
He said the city's continued push to evolve is why the tourism economy is so successful.
"When it comes to understanding that the engine for Vegas are the 45 million tourists that come every year, they have to keep raising the bar for tourists because it's a global market," Kim said. "I think having a $2 billion, literally the best baseball venue anywhere built in the city is just a statement of intent that Vegas does Vegas and it does it big and it does it well."