If Unite-Here doesn’t cave in today, it’s curtains for Trump Taj Mahal. Or so says Carl Icahn, who wants the union to abandon its court fight to restore health and pension benefits breached by Trump Entertainment Resorts. If Icahn carries through with his ultimatum,
the property would be mothballed on Dec. 20. TER CEO Robert Griffin got into the act, sending another of his melodramatic missives to Local 54 President Robert McDevitt.
“Please, Bob. This is our final opportunity to help people. Time is running out and money is running short. We simply cannot stay in limbo any longer. Every day, fewer and fewer people patronize the Taj, and we lose more and more of what little money we have left,” wailed Griffin, blaming McDevitt for his own ineptitude. “We just cannot wait any longer.”
At least Griffin is offering greater flexibility than Icahn, setting no drop-dead date for negotiations.
* Tilman Fertitta is proclaiming Golden Nugget Lake Charles, which opened stealthily on Dec. 7, to be his signature property. It is, he said “the most unique gaming opportunity in 
America. Golden Nugget Lake Charles is like no other gaming resort offering a first-class, Las Vegas-style atmosphere right here in the South … Our Vegas, Laughlin, Atlantic City and Biloxi properties, each required a dramatic renovation and rebranding, whereas Lake Charles is our first ground-up development and articulates our style through and through.”
When the opportunity to get into Lake Charles presented itself, Fertitta was quick to strike. He caught a flight to Vegas and offered $50 million, nonrefundable down payment for the site.
The brand-new casino boasts 70 table games, 1,600 slots and 740 hotel rooms. “I look at Louisiana and Texas almost as one,” said Fertitta, although five-sixths of his players club applicants are from the Lone Star State. Lake Charles is within a couple of hours’ drive from not only Houston but Austin and San Antonio as well, placing Fertitta in an enviable position to convert his Texas restaurant customers into Louisiana casino ones. (There are no fewer than seven Landry’s Inc. restaurants on property.)
Not everything is ready. The golf course won’t be open until April and the showroom will be inaugurated in January by LeAnn Rimes. The property shan’t lack for competition, with Pinnacle Entertainment‘s L’Auberge du Lac right next door (although Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo assures me the rivalry will be healthy for both), an Isle of Capri casino across the lake, and Boyd Gaming‘s Delta Downs and the tribal Coushatta Casino Resort within a half hour’s drive. However, one bets against Fertitta’s business acumen at one’s own peril.
* Kudos to whomever at Caesars Entertainment thought this one up. Not only does it put some idle, post-Linq real estate to use but I would imagine there are plenty of people who’d part with $5 just so they could say they’d gone tobogganing on the Las Vegas Strip.
