Station Casinos acquires 126 acres south of Las Vegas Strip for $172M

Hotel and casino company Station Casinos has bought 126 acres south of the Las Vegas Strip, according to local media reports. The big purchase comes just a few days after the operator announced plans to demolish and sell the land of three closed venues it owns in Southern Nevada with the intention to reinvest in its current portfolio and also to expand it.

The locals-focused casino operator acquired Monday roughly 126 acres at the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Cactus Avenue for $172.4 million, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal. Developer Larry Canarelli, in charge of the sale, told the cited source that due to its “magnitude,” the deal eclipsed other land sales in the area.

A representative for the company confirmed the land acquisition to FOX5 on Wednesday, but no formal plans for the land have yet been announced. Station Casinos, however, did say it is “excited” about the potential for this site as a destination casino resort.

“We are excited about the potential of this site as a local and regional destination casino resort. The larger acreage parcel allows the Company greater flexibility in master planning to take maximum advantage of the future development,” a statement reads. “We look forward to sharing our plans in the future.”

The three venues Red Rock Resorts is set to demolish

Located several miles south of the Strip, Station’s new holdings are across the street from a roughly 57-acre spread the business has owned for years and has tried to sell, according to Review-Journal. The casino operator owns several big tracts of real estate scattered around the Las Vegas Valley, in storage for future resort projects.

Through this latest purchase, Station Casinos makes a significant expansion of its land holdings, in line with the intention management unveiled last year of doubling the company’s presence in the valley. The plot of land is expected to give the company options and flexibility to explore new developments.

Scott Kreeger, president of Station Casinos' parent company Red Rock Resorts, said in a recent interview that the firm is entertaining offers for its existing site at the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Cactus, given the newly acquired land is the company’s “primary” development focus there. He also said the purchase was part of a “strategic” direction to keep developing in areas with high economic potential.

Station Casinos operates a number of venues in Vegas, including Red Rock Resort and Green Valley Ranch Resort. Last week, representatives of its parent company announced plans to permanently close and demolish three properties with the intention to sell the land beneath them: Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson. The venues have remained shuttered since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began.

A total of 107.5 acres would be involved in the three land sales, and the company believes most of the closed casinos’ customer bases have migrated to other Station properties. But while the company is waving goodbye to those properties, it has also announced plans to move forward with new projects. Kreeger confirmed to Review-Journal that the business is working with the city of North Las Vegas -home to two of the shuttered venues- on a potential development site for a “large-scale” resort.

In the meantime, the company has already broken ground on a new property called Durango Casino and Resort. The large-scale $750 million project in southwest Las Vegas is slated to open in late 2023. The resort will sit on roughly 50 acres, with an adjacent 21 acres held for sale.

And earlier this month, Red Rock Resorts began work on a smaller-scale project in downtown Las Vegas, a Wildfire casino on Fremont Street just south of Charleston Boulevard. The one-story venue would span more than 21,000 square feet and sit on a 5-acre plot of land.