Australian billionaire James Packer has once again set his sights on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Crown Resorts chairman is considering a development on land where the New Frontier casino was located and has bought a piece of a loan backed by the property.
The 34.5-acre site was to be developed by Nochi Danker’s IDB Development and Yitzhak Tshuva’s Elad Group into a $6bn $8bn casino. Those plans collapsed in the recession.
Danker and Tshuva bought the site from Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin for $1.2bn. Packer is negotiating with the property’s creditors, who include Oaktree Capital, which owns half of the failed project’s debt, the source said.
Packer also took a hit in the US during the recession, losing nearly $2bn in failed investments in the Fontainebleau Las Vegas project and Cannery Casinos. He has long contemplated taking another shot at a US casino and attempted earlier this year to buy Cosmopolitan Las Vegas.
Source: Fantini’s Gaming Report
