Las Vegas Sun NewsGary Loveman: Fontainebleau will likely become Carl Icahn’s ‘scrap metal liquidation effort’
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The hulking shell of Fontainebleau sits dark on the Strip. Construction was halted on the resort in summer 2009 after lenders pulled $800 million in financing.
Wednesday
3 October 2012
12:11 p.m.
A few years back, casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp., or at least its investors, were rumored to be looking at buying the stalled and unfinished Fontainebleau casino-resort project on the Las Vegas Strip.
That didn't happen, and billionaire investor Carl Icahn eventually bought the project out of bankruptcy. Though it is 70-percent completed, he hasn't announced plans for it.
This week, Caesars CEO Gary Loveman suggested the casino-resort might not have a bright future.
The $2.9 billion Fontainebleau was financed during the easy-money boom years but was never completed, in part, because of the cratering of the economy during the recession, Loveman told analysts Tuesday during a company presentation for investors coinciding with G2E. Construction halted on the 3,815-room casino-resort and it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
"Perhaps one of the poster children for this is the still-unfinished Fontainebleau here in Las Vegas, which was perhaps not a very well conceived project from the very beginning and is likely someday to find its future as a scrap metal liquidation effort for Carl Icahn," Loveman said.
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Carl made his money on the buy,not like gary LOVECHECKS who paid to much for the Harrahs brand of propertys, Watch your own hotels and casinos Garyboy chapter 11 will come when the Linq is built, After that you can buy the property from Carl for way too much money for the growth of the new Caesars brand..
Such a hideous building that is a disgrace the LV skyline. I can't believe the plans for this monstrosity were ever approved. The County Commission either has horrible taste or no interest in asthetics.
For all the Co's debt it's hard to believe that Loveman is still COO. As another example Stations with the Fertittas declared bankruptcy about 3 yrs ago and had debt of $6 B . With good attorneys they got out of bankruptcy and the Co owes only $2B and the Fertittas still remain Coo . Isn't America wonderful.? Let me see u do that ? What ever happened to Jon Corzine? Rumors has it that he is in the witness protection program.
An off-the-cuff remark made by an executive likely positioning his company to buy the place at a steal is news?
Loveman could be right. Every time I see that building, it looks like more and more of it is missing.
chazbean...
Corzine is hiding in plain sight; AND he's looking to steal ANOTHER fortune.
Amazingly, he's not getting prosecuted for the billions of other people's money he 'lost'...and he has the stones to be trying to...get this...START A HEDGE FUND.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16...
In today's America, the richest of the richy-rich run around with impunity & immunity..a veritable licence to steal, with a 'get out of jail free' card just in case.
What a huge waste of labor and materials if they tear it down. That end of the Strip really needs a 'draw' . The remodeled Sahara will help,but....
They better make sure that all of the copper wiring hasn't already been stolen from the site--I couldn't believe this video where a data center worker holds up some 2-inch power cable and says that it costs a dollar an inch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/techno...
Carl has been looking to unload this property for years. He is worth a lot of money but will never spend the dough to finish it. He obviously bought it to flip it but that is never going to happen. Loveman may be right on the money.
I think they have more to worry about with the Hilton Vacations building on the right! How the heck does a picture like that make it into the paper anyway?
Whenever I see the Fontainebleau, I see the image of Rhyollite, one of over sixty ghost towns in Nevada,
Can you imagine a bunch of steel hulks jutting into the bright desert sky, with blowing sand in weeded-over, empty parking lots?
Someone should make a movie of that. :-)
What is it going to take to get this town to realize that its salvation does not rest in one one more big casino development? Without some viable economic diversity, Las Vegas may crumble into an abyss of economic mediocrity.
Just thinking, hasn't Ichan sold all the fixtures,furniture etc. to other Nevada Casino's? The sale of these items has given him a profit. So he just doesn't care anymore.