Strip Land Deal With Mysterious Chilean Mogul Falls Through
Right up front, “Chilean Mogul” sounds delicious, especially with a zesty tartar sauce.
That said, what we’re talking about is something else, entirely.
Specifically, a $120 million land deal on The Strip previously announced by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) has fallen through.
The real world impact? Lanyard company stocks are about to get crushed!
So, some background.
Back in Oct. 2021, the LVCVA announced it had struck a deal to sell a 10-acre parcel of land, formerly the home of part of the Riviera.
At the time, the mysterious buyer was described as a “Bond villain.” Only by us, but that’s one of the reasons we’re special.
Right out of the gate, the whole thing sounded fishy. We’ll be circling back to this deceptively innocuous idiom in a moment.
The 10 acres of Riv land (currently a parking lot) was to be purchased by Claudio Fischer, owner of Sun Dreams, the largest casino resort operator in Latin America.
The bulk of Fischer’s wealth is supposed to have come from, wait for it, salmon farming. This is the part where you are supposed to circle back. We’ll wait.
Originally, the deal was supposed to close in June 2022. Not so much.
Construction of a new resort was supposed to start in 2031. Not so much.
The LVCVA pulled the plug on the deal, and the land is back up for sale.
Lanyard companies can take comfort from the fact the LVCVA kept its $7 million non-refundable deposit from Fischer (technically, his company, CB Investment SpA).
All this could’ve been avoided if the Riviera hadn’t been demolished. Which is definitely an opening to share our incredible video chronicling the demolition of the Riviera.
As if the original Riviera land sale deal wasn’t fishy enough, the reason for Fischer not fulfilling on his end of the agreement stinks to high heaven.
Google’s awkward translation of the original Spanish language news story about the failed deal says, “The economic crisis affecting the United States was a determining factor for the Fischers to see their aspirations to open a casino in Sin City truncated for the third time. Specifically, the rise in the Federal Reserve rate to 4.25% and mortgage rates reaching a maximum of 7.08% in the last two decades were decisive.”
First up, the U.S. isn’t having an “economic crisis.” Our eggs are expensive at the moment, but that’s a far cry from a “crisis.”
A source at Fischer’s company said, “With this [mortgage] rate level, no commercial project can be carried out.” What is the Spanish word for “hooey”? In Las Vegas, Dream Hotel is going up, Durango casino is making speedy progress and Fontainebleau is being finished to the tune of $2.2 billion in fresh financing.
Our opinion is all this translates into: Couldn’t get the money and no way this guy was going to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Yeah, we said it.
What do mortgage rates have to do with a project that wasn’t going to start construction until 2031?
We may never know the real reason this deal fell through, but such misfires aren’t uncommon in Las Vegas. The technical term is “all talk, no action.” Much like our love life.
Here’s hoping the LVCVA can find another buyer who actually possesses the nuts, as our poker player friends say.
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