Only a month or so after dropping Mariah Carey as a his Fiance, it seems that James Packer is completely done with Las Vegas. I’m not sure this comes as a huge surprise, since the land has been remaining completely undeveloped for the last year, but still it’s a huge disappointment for those who had taken positions with the company, only to now find they have no future.
“Today’s announcements will maximize value for the benefit of all Crown Resorts shareholders, allowing us to redeploy capital to fund high quality growth projects as well as adopting a number of capital management initiatives,” Crown Resorts’ Chairman Robert Rankin said in a statement that also announced other changes for the company, including selling some of its stake in a Macau-based casino venture and focusing more on properties in Australia.
Packer, recently ranked No. 453 on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires with a net worth of $3.5 billion, and his associates were planning a 1,000-plus room resort in two towers on 35 acres on the Las Vegas Strip where the Frontier had stood.
The site was purchased in 2014 for a reported $260 million, but no improvements to the site had been made.
VitalVegas reported this past year, “For his part, James Packer and his Crown Resorts, can’t catch a break in Las Vegas. The company lost $250 million when its roughly 20 percent stake in the failed Fontainebleau “evaporated” in a chapter 11 bankruptcy.”
The founders of the project are still trying to limp around Vegas, and issued a brief but extremely sad press release that almost seemed like they were begging for money, pointing out that it was “Shovel Ready.” Perhaps they mean that the only thing they can afford anymore is the shovel?
It was just this past summer that Andrew Pascal, the head of the project claimed that the rumors of the project being shuttered was false. His claims now that it would continue, especially with half-built projects like Fountaineblue still not finished, seem hallow and fake.
James Packer should have just earned his way on the banned entry list and banned from doing any business in the US ever again but he is not the only one. If someone thinks I am being harsh you can pick up discounted tickets to the Mob Museum online. You learn that some crooks dress really nice but at least some get things done and put people to work in the process. This Fountaineblue mess would have been a done deal by now back in the day. Just saying.