Station tries to shed excess baggage; Steve Wynn’s big ape

Back in 2004, when euphoria ran high in the casino industry, Station Casinos got carried away and spent nearly $34 million on the dilapidated Castaways, at the north end of the Boulder Strip. Despite commissioning a design from Ed Vance for a no-hotel casino/restaurant on the site, Station couldn’t or wouldn’t pull the trigger on reconstruction. The site has been on and off the market for years and it’s back on again: 25.5 acres for a mere $6.6 million. Station, in the meanwhile, is having a hard time finding takers for its 57 acres on Cactus Lane, just south of South Point and listed at $40 million. Station’s inventory of raw real estate is a double-edged sword, both a potential treasure trove of fungible assets and a millstone of empty land, depending on which way the market winds are blowing (and they haven’t blown Station’s way in a while, even though the gaming market has). But if the unattractive Castaways location is now on the discount shelf, can northern-Beltway site “Losee Station” be far behind? It’s not zoned for gaming, which opens its potential to a wider range of buyers. But it’s been shopped around and gone begging before.

* As many as eight potential NFL stadium sites have been mooted for the Las Vegas area, including late entrant Wynncore, which volunteered to grind up its golf course in return for stadium rights. However, an unlikely aspirant — Bali Hai Golf Club — has risen to the head of the class, in no small part due to its location at the confluence of I-15 and the 215 Beltway. This means MGM Resorts International could benefit without having to scrap its Rock In Rio festival grounds, as the closest casinos to Bali Hai are the “Mandalay Mile.” Relative proximity to the stadium could also be lagniappe for Penn National Gaming at the Tropicana. It’s not a done deal but we’ve come a long way in a short time from the period when UNLV‘s “Tropicana 42” acreage was considered the default site.

* A giant, animatronic King Kong was part of the early plans for Stratosphere, whose tower it would ascend and descend (although the gods of mechanical failure could potentially strand passengers in the belly of the beast). Subsequent owners of the Strat would dust the idea off whenever they wanted to scare neighbors into conceding to some other thrill ride … the hotel-casino being adjacent to Las Vegas‘ only historic-area neighborhood and enjoying an uneasy relationship thereto. Now Steve Wynn vows to do what Bob Stupak couldn’t, adding a second island to Wynn Paradise Park and crowning it with his own version of King Kong. In a speaking engagement at Couture Time, Wynn said: “we will have an eight-story-tall Kong who will make an appearance every day before the water shows. He will be articulated to turn 360 degrees and will have a 50-foot arm spread, and in his left hand he will hold a girl. He will have animated eyes and a big sound. Millions of people come to Vegas each year and we know they will come to see this. The question is, how much will they pay?”

Eight stories? Before we conclude that Wynn has gone off his rocker, note that he has learned from the — to his viewpoint — mistake of having made The Mirage volcano and Treasure Island pirate battle free to all. King Kong will be a for-pay attraction. No, Steve Wynn hasn’t lost his acuity in devising profitable ideas. The contraption in question sounds so intricate as to invite malfunction, but nobody ever got rich betting against Wynn.

* With only minor revenue fluctuations from casino to casino, July was almost perfectly uneventful for Illinois casino operators, doubtless to their relief. The only exception was a 9% plunge at Boyd Gaming‘s Par-A-Dice. Boyd is surely going to have to take a page from Penn National and buy some slot routes if it hopes to stay competitive in the Land of Lincoln.