Over $1.2 Billion: New Frontier Sales Record

The Israeli-owned real estate investment group confirmed late Tuesday that it has purchased New Frontier and 36 Streep acres, dubbed the most expensive large-scale site deal on the Streep, for more than $1.2 billion.

Ruffin said ElAd Properties, which owns New York City’s landmark buildings, signed a purchase agreement for the hotel-casino site last week. 사설 토토사이트

Ruffin, a businessman from Wichita, Kansas, who paid $167 million for the New Frontier in 1998, was looking for an equity partner to fund the redevelopment of the New Frontier into a 2,750-room Swiss-themed resort.

“We’re under contract, and that means we’re making a deal,” Ruffin said. “We’ve been successful on the property, but we’ve reached a better point of letting someone else in and redeveloping the site.”

Ruffin had been in negotiations with El Ad since March. An internet-based real estate website reported on March 19 that a deal had been signed to sell New Frontier to El Ad for $1.5 billion, but Ruffin denied the report.

Ruffin and game sources familiar with the deal said LAd will close its aging Western-themed hotel casino once the deal is completed in 90 days. The 984-room New Frontier will be demolished, and LAd will build a replica of New York’s landmark Plaza Hotel on the site.

El-Ad bought the Plaza for $675 million in 2005 and is remodeling famous properties, including the conversion of some apartments into Manhattan’s highest-priced condominiums.

Ruffin said it informed 1,000 New Frontier employees of the sale this morning.
“They’re setting records for condominium prices in Plaza,” said John Knott, vice president of CB Richard Ellis’ Global Gaming Group, who is familiar with the details of the deal.

Ruffin said the deal with ElAd does not include seven acres on the back of the New Frontier site, which holds the $1.2 billion Trump International Hotel & Tower. Ruffin said the non-game towers will continue to be owned in partnership with New York billionaire Donald Trump.

The first Trump International first tower, with a capacity of 1,282, was completed at a ceremony on May 25 and is expected to open sometime next year.

“Donald’s already heard about this deal, and he’s excited to death,” Ruffin said. “It’s going to be a really good deal for the towers, and it’s going to be tremendously helpful for them.”

Game and real estate analysts have estimated the strip’s main land value to be between $20 million and $30 million per acre. Recently announced deals related to land in the Sahara Desert and the northern tip of the strip have been estimated to be between $17 million and $23 million per acre.

The New Frontier’s acreage has grown in value due to activities on surrounding properties. Wynn Las Vegas was opened in 2005 for $2.7 billion across the strip on land that once housed Desert Inn. Wynn Resorts is building Encore, which added $2.1 billion in Wynn Las Vegas, which is expected to open in 2009.

Boyd Gaming, north of the Desert Inn Super Arterial, expects to break ground on a $4.4 billion Echelons at the Stardust site that collapsed in March next month.

Thirty-six Frontier acres sold for more than $33 million per acre, priced at more than $1.2 billion, making it the most expensive large-scale site deal on the strip, Knoth said.

Harra’s Entertainment paid the equivalent of nearly $85 million per acre for a 4.3-acre site in the northeastern corner of Trip and Flamingo Road, home to Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, formerly known as the Barbary Coast. Harra traded the site for Boyd Gaming Corp.

Lupin was ranked 717th in Forbes’ Global Billionaires list in March with a net worth of $1.4 billion. He was considered the savior of the New Frontier when he acquired the casino from the Eladi family.

The building was the longest-running site of business disruption in the country when more than 550 employees backed by the culinary union quit the company in September 1991.