Caesars Entertainment Sells Three Vegas Hotels to Itself, Will Use $223 Million From the Sale to Renovate The Quad

By Scott Roeben, on March 04 2014
2 min read 4 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels Las Vegas WTF

We. Are. Not. Making. This. Up.

In one of the more bizarre Las Vegas stories in some time (that, again, we aren’t making up), Caesars Entertainment has announced it’s going to sell four hotels, three of which are in Las Vegas, to itself.

Caesars Growth Partners (a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment), will purchase Bally’s Las Vegas, The Cromwell, The Quad and Harrah’s New Orleans from, wait for it, Caesars Entertainment for $2.2 billion, “including assumed debt of $185 million and committed project capital expenditures of $223 million, resulting in cash consideration of approximately $1.8 billion.”

The Cromwell
The Cromwell, formerly the Gansevoort Las Vegas, formerly Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon, formerly the Barbary Coast. There will be a quiz.

The sale is expected to happen in the second quarter of 2014.

This somewhat incestuous transaction will miraculously result in a $223 million, long-awaited renovation of The Quad, so it has that going for it.

The news release says, “The transformation of The Quad will create a new design-inspired urban hotel combining boutique sensibilities with full scale resort amenities.” Because you could really hurt your head on those miniature resort amenities.

The renovations at The Quad will include completion of the exterior facade, remodel of the guest rooms (awesome), an expansion of meeting spaces and new “dining experiences.”

We’re most excited about the “substantial infrastructure upgrades.” Assuming that refers to go-go dealers.

The Quad
The Quad, formerly Imperial Palace, formerly Flamingo Capri, formerly cacti.

The Quad’s renovation is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015.

How is all this possible given the fact Caesars Entertainment is $23 billion in debt? It’s best that we focus on the Vegas newness, rather than the WTF.

Scratching your head? This might help. See all the details of this fascinating bit of financial wizardry in the news release posted, in its entirety and with refreshingly little analysis, at the Wall Street Journal.

Note: If your head explodes, this blog is not cleaning that up.