Station Casinos pitches Wildfire Casino project in downtown Vegas as it expands in the area

Station Casinos is pitching a new project near downtown Las Vegas, a proposed Wildfire Casino at 2700 Fremont St., just south of Charleston Boulevard. It has received staff approval from the Las Vegas Planning Commission and must now receive endorsement from the city commissioners to move forward.

The one-story project would span about 21,000 square feet and sit on a 5-acre plot, according to city documents retrieved by Las Vegas Review-Journal. It would add to Station’s Wildfire brand, which includes 10 casinos in the valley, among them one on Rancho Drive, about 2 miles from North Las Vegas Airport, boasting 157 slot machines, a sportsbook and a restaurant.

This new development represents another step in Station Casinos’ plan to double its presence in the region. The company owns six undeveloped sites in the valley, which it expects to progressively develop in an effort to “double the size of our current operating platform in Vegas.”

“Right now as you can see we’re kind of in the development mode,” Lorenzo Fertitta, vice chairman of Station parent company Red Rock Resorts, told analysts during a conference call last month.

Red Rock Resorts posted Q3 net revenue of $414.8 million in November, up 17.4% from the same period last year. EBITDA also climbed, almost 15%, year-over-year to $184.5 million. 

RRR Chairman and CEO Frank Fertitta III confirmed expansion efforts, stating the company was set to “continue to look at each one of the development sites” in Vegas as it tries to roll forward and build out its portfolio.

Station owns large tracts of real estate around the valley in storage for future resort projects, totaling about 315 acres. One of those tracts is 71 acres at Durango Drive, which the company intends to develop into a new project, to break ground in 2022.

At $750 million, near Ikea in the southwest valley, the new Station Casino at Durango Drive is set to be built in two phases and will sit on 50 acres, while the remaining acreage will be sold for more than $20 million.

Groundbreaking is expected for the first quarter of 2022, and Station anticipates construction to take approximately 18 to 24 months. Plans call for 452 rooms across two hotel towers, restaurants, entertainment, and about 93,000 square feet of casino space.