Australian casino mogul James Packer is hanging his Las Vegas casino dream out in the open with a multi-million price tag.
The Australian reported that Packer’s Crown Resorts Ltd. has formally abandoned plans to construct a casino in the world’s most famous gambling strip by putting his Las Vegas land on the market for $400 million.
Crown owns 18.4 acres (7.4-hectares) of the planned casino site and is leasing the remaining 16.2 acres from the previous owners. The casino operator has hired brokerage CBRE Group to sell the lot where the Alon casino and hotel project was to be built.
The site sits opposite the famous Wynn Las Vegas and Encore at Wynn Las Vegas resorts, just north of the Fashion Show mall.
CBRE executive vice-president John Knott described the land as “one of the most exciting properties to become available in Las Vegas in a long time.”
The sale of the Alon land is the second property that Crown sold as it continued his exit of international assets. Early this year, Crown Resorts disposed its entire stake in Asian casino developer Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.
According to Crown, the proceeds from the disposal of international assets worth $987 million will be used to pay the casino operator’s debt.
“Crown will now be more focused on driving greater returns in Australia and ensuring the company is well prepared to deliver Crown Sydney in 2021,” a Crown spokesman said.
Packer, who owns 48 percent stake in Crown, returned as a director of Crown Resorts after he received “all necessary approval.” It would be recalled that Packer stepped down as a Crown director in December 2015 after resigning as chairman in August 2015.
As Crown shifted its focus to its domestic assets, Packer appointed John Alexander to chair his casino empire.
At present, one of Crown’s remaining international interests include its Aspinall casino in London. It remains to be seen whether Crown will join the bidding war for a license in Japan.
