Steve Wynn’s Latest Gamble: $43 Million Palm Beach Mansion

Posted on: August 21, 2019, 12:29h. 

Last updated on: August 21, 2019, 06:09h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Steve Wynn no longer has direct ties to the gaming company bearing his surname. But that isn’t stopping the controversial former casino executive from taking other gambles, including high-end Florida real estate.

Former gaming giant Steve Wynn is now gambling with Florida real estate. (Image: CNBC)

The former CEO of Wynn Resorts recently scooped up a Palm Beach oceanfront estate for $43 million, and it looks like he got a good deal. The 24,600-square-foot mansion at 1960 South Ocean Boulevard came to market last year with a price tag of $59 million, but that was later trimmed to $56 million, the listed price when Wynn’s $43 million offer was accepted.

A Delaware limited liability corporation (LLC) with a Las Vegas address, known as 1960 LLC, is the listed buyer of the property, according to Palm Beach real estate records. That LLC has ties to a firm known as Wynn Fine Art, a holding company for the sullied casino executive’s lavish art collection.

The seller of the estate is listed as Emma Cisneros of 1960 South Ocean Blvd. LLC, a member of the billionaire Cisneros family, with ventures in Venezuela. With an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, just over a third of Wynn’s fortune, Gustavo Cisneros is the patriarch of that family.

The home includes a billiards room, a chef’s kitchen with butler’s pantry, a wine cellar, and staff quarters, loggias, terraces, a guest and pool house, and more,” according to The Real Deal.

Cisneros is of Cuban heritage, but owns assets in Venezuela, including a baseball team, brewery, and a television network. The privately held Grupo Cisneros is operated out of South Florida. Cisneros and Wynn share a love of art. Nearly three years ago, the Cuban businessman and his wife donated 100 Latin American works to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reports Forbes.

Flip It Like Wynn?

Amid a spate of sexual assault allegations, Wynn was ousted from the company bearing his name last year and it was proposed that he would also be banned from the firm’s casinos. Wynn has maintained his innocence and has never been criminally charged. But he’s widely viewed as the first high-profile gaming executive to fall from grace in the #MeToo movement’s effort to expose alleged sexual misconduct by high-ranking male executives against female subordinates.

Following his departure from the gaming enterprise, Wynn liquidated his entire stake in Wynn Resorts, selling his last batch of shares in May 2018 at around $180, a price the stock hasn’t matched. Shares of Wynn Resorts reside around $113.50 at this writing.

Since his downfall in Las Vegas, Wynn has reportedly been spending considerable time in South Florida. Last December, he held a party in Miami aboard his $215 million yacht, “The Aquarius.” Following Wynn’s departure from Sin City, “The Aquarius” was active, sailing to the Bahamas from Palm Beach and then back, reports The New York Post.

When he hasn’t been gallivanting across the Caribbean on his yacht, Wynn has found time to make some pocket change in South Florida real estate. Last year, he sold a lot at 1350 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach for nearly $20.3 million. Though that’s below the $26.5 million he sought in 2014, the sale price was above the $20 million Wynn paid for the land.

Low Key

Wynn’s profile has been mostly low since leaving his former employer. But he remains active in political circles, having donated almost $400,000 to the GOP in April.

While he may not be spending much time in Sin City these days, Wynn bought a $13 million suburban Las Vegas mansion last year soon after leaving the company, a sale that was the city’s biggest 2018 residential real estate transaction.