Over $1.2 Billion: New Frontier Sales Record
The Israeli-owned real estate investment group confirmed late Tuesday that it had purchased 36 strip acres and New Frontier, dubbed the most expensive large-scale site deal on the strip, for more than $1.2 billion.
Ruffin said ElAd Properties, which owns New York City's landmark buildings, signed a purchase agreement for the hotel-casino site last week.
Ruffin, a businessman from Wichita, Kansas, who paid $167 million for the New Frontier in 1998, was looking for an equity partner to fund the redevelopment of the New Frontier into a 2,750-room Swiss-themed resort.
"We're under contract, and that means we're making a deal," Ruffin said. "We've been successful on the property, but we've reached a better point of letting someone else in and redeveloping the site."
Ruffin had been in negotiations with El Ad since March. The internet-based real estate website reported on March 19 that a deal was signed to sell New Frontier to El Ad for $1.5 billion, but Ruffin denied the report.
Ruffin and game sources familiar with the deal said LAd will close its aging Western-themed hotel casino once the deal is completed in 90 days. The 984-room New Frontier will be demolished, and LAd will build a replica of New York's landmark Plaza Hotel on the site.
El-Ad bought Plaza for $675 million in 2005 and has been remodeling famous properties, converting some apartments into Manhattan's most expensive condominiums.
Ruffin said he informed 1,000 New Frontier employees of the sale this morning.
"They're setting records for condominium prices at Plaza," said John Knott, vice president of CB Richard Ellis' Global Gaming Group, who is familiar with the details of the deal.
Ruffin said the deal with ElAd does not include seven acres on the back of the New Frontier site, which houses the $1.2 billion Trump International Hotel & Tower. Ruffin said the off-game tower will continue to be owned in partnership with New York billionaire Donald Trump.
The first Trump International tower, which can accommodate 1,282 people, was completed at a ceremony on May 25 and will open sometime next year.
"Donald's already heard about this deal, and he's excited to die," Ruffin said. "It's going to be a really good deal for the towers, and it's going to be tremendously helpful for them."
Game and real estate analysts have estimated the strip's main land value to be between $20 million and $30 million per acre. Recently announced deals related to the Sahara Desert and the northern tip of the strip have been estimated to be between $17 million and $23 million per acre.
The area of the New Frontier has become more valuable due to its activities on surrounding properties. Wynn Las Vegas opened in 2005 for $2.7 billion on land that once housed Desert Inn. Wynn Resorts is building Encore, which added $2.1 billion in Wynn Las Vegas, which is expected to open in 2009.
Void Gaming, north of Desert Inn Super Archetic, expects to break ground on a $4.4 billion Echelon at the collapsed Stardust site in March next month.
Thirty-six Frontier acres sold for more than $33 million per acre, priced at more than $1.2 billion, making it the strip's most expensive large-scale site deal, Knoss said.
Harra's Entertainment paid the equivalent of nearly $85 million per acre for a 4.3-acre site in the northeastern corner of Trip and Flamingo Road, home to Bill's Gamblin' Hall, formerly known as the Barbary Coast. Harra traded the site for Boyd Gaming Corp.
Lupin was ranked 717th in Forbes' Global Billionaires list in March, with a net worth of $1.4 billion. He was considered the savior of the New Frontier when he acquired the casino from the Eladi family. 바카라사이트
The building was the longest-running business shutdown in the country in September 1991, when 550 employees supported by the culinary union quit the company.