New Frontier sold, Montreux now canned
The New Frontier hotel and casino has been sold by Phil Ruffin to Elad Properties who intend to implode the Frontier and replace it with a $5 billion hotel based on New York’s Plaza Hotel. Ruffin had plans to implode the Frontier later this year and develop a $2.6 billion Swiss-themed resort called the Montreux, which I wrote about only two days ago!
Now though, he’s decided that the better option is to sell to Elad Properties for $1.2 billion, and let them take the risk of competing with the Frontier’s huge new neighbours that are currently being built.
For Ruffin, this deal seems to be a no-brainer. He paid only $168 million dollars for the New Frontier back in 1998, so selling it for $1.2 billion represents a 714% return on the initial investment - not a bad deal when put in those terms!
Ruffin was also going to finance the Montreux himself, which, at $2.6 billion, would have been a huge financial risk. Now though, Ruffin has zero risk, and many more zeroes in his bank account, while Elad Properties can busy themselves transforming the much-neglected Frontier into a brand new hotel with a world-renowned brand - The Plaza.
For Vegas visitors, we no longer get the opportunity of a Vegas Eye (a giant 450 foot observation wheel based on the London Eye), as The Plaza will be a plush hotel without the need for gimmicks. What we get instead is a huge $5 billion hotel, casino, conference and shopping complex containing 3,500 rooms. Sounds great, but the Vegas Eye sounded better! And while super-luxurious hotels are all well and good, Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas without its themed hotels, so I was looking forward to another one.
Still, maybe I’m just being sour. It was only two days ago I wrote a lengthy post on the Montreux, and now the whole project’s been canned - I know things move fast in Vegas, but this is ridiculous!
The New Frontier is set to close later this year and imploded early next year, while the new Vegas Plaza is set to open some time in 2011. Oh well, at least that’s another implosion to look forward to!
[Source: Forbes]
May 21st, 2007, 21:45
[...] However, with the Wynn Encore, Palazzo and Echelon Place all currently under construction in the neighbourhood, and the Frontier scheduled to be replaced by a new Plaza Hotel complex, the north is being transformed into the hot new place to be. [...]
May 24th, 2007, 23:44
[...] Before I continue, just think of those numbers: $131 million for just 7.6 acres! That’s $17 million per acre! Yet this still pales into insignificance compared with El Ad’s purchase of The Frontier, which cost them a staggering $33 million per acre. It’s no wonder the new hotels are being built tall with thousands of rooms and hundreds of condo units in them - it’s the only way they’ll get their money back. [...]
June 28th, 2007, 23:17
[...] These hotels are currently under construction, and will open between early 2008 and 2010. They’re by no means the end of the story, though. Hotels that are about to begin construction include The Plaza, a $5 billion hotel that will be built on the site of the New Frontier, which will be imploded later in 2007; and the Crown Las Vegas, a new hotel that will be built next to the Fontainebleau, and which will soar an incredible 1,888 feet. [...]