Billionaire owner of the Golden Nugget casinos Tilman Fertitta is buying a six-acre piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip for over $200 million. The land, currently occupied by a Travelodge motel, restaurants, and retail, is on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue.
It’s a solid spot, in between the MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood, and across the Strip from CityCenter, which includes the Aria.
Las Vegas developer Brett Torino, who owns a retail complex on the northeast corner of the same intersection, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that a Fertitta luxury resort would be “fantastic” there.
“You have the opportunity to squeeze — I don’t know if this is his plan — a massive amount of construction and development on that site,” he said.
As mentioned, Fertitta owns the Golden Nugget casinos, located in downtown Las Vegas, Laughlin (Nevada), Lake Charles (Louisiana), Biloxi (Mississippi), and Atlantic City. No details have emerged as to what his plans are for the Strip location, though one might guess that it will be some sort of casino resort. And if it is, it would on the one hand make sense to name it Golden Nugget, as that’s what Feritta’s casinos are called, but on the other hand, with the iconic Golden Nugget located downtown, it would just be confusing. People would always have to clarify which one they were talking about and there would likely be booking mix-ups.
Aside from the casinos, Tilman Fertitta’s empire is expansive. He owns Landry’s Inc., which itself owns and operates hundreds of entertainment, hospitality, dining, and gambling properties, including the Golden Nugget casinos, McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co,. Rainforest Café, and Morton’s The Steakhouse.
In 2017, Fertitta bought his sports love, the NBA’s Houston Rockets, for $2.2 billion. In the process of acquiring the Rockets, he also become the owner of well-known esports team Clutch Gaming.
Fertitta also owned Golden Nugget Online Gaming (GNOG), which he took public in 2020 through a reverse merger when it was acquired by special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Landcadia Holdings II. Landcadia II was created by Fertitta Entertainment, Inc. and Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. for the purpose of taking GNOG public.
Last August, DraftKings acquired Golden Nugget Online Gaming for $1.56 billion, while at the same time entering into a “commercial agreement” with Fertitta Entertainment. Fertitta got a seat on the DraftKings’ board of directors and became one of the largest shareholders of the sports betting and daily fantasy sports company.
Image credit: Flickr.com/Diego Pimentel
